A grocer with its own iPad? Perhaps

The British grocer Tesco has long been known for doing many un-grocery-like things. It operates a bank, sells insurance, and for a while even flogged used cars.

Next up: How about a Tesco iPad?

Rumour has it that the U.K.’s largest grocery chain is building its own tablet computer to compete with Apple’s iPad and Amazon’s Kindle.

Tesco hasn’t confirmed whether such a device is in the works. But experts say it makes sense for the supermarket operator to expand into tablets.

In 2011, Tesco bought a majority stake in a British video-on-demand service called Blinkbox, which does battle with Netflix and iTunes.

Tesco would likely load its tablet computer with Blinkbox as a way to move further into the digital download market–a sector that’s growing 17 per cent annually in the U.K.

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