There’s so much I could say about the iPad, particularly being a Flash guy. But I’ll stay out of that fray. Whatever will be, will be.
The thing that bugs me about people’s reactions to the iPad is when people say it’s a Kindle killer. First of all, I’m pretty sure that most of the people saying such things do not own a Kindle. It’s a totally different device. Here’s where the Kindle wins out:
Battery life: 10 days vs. 10 hours.
Eink: You can shrug this off if you don’t have a Kindle, but it does make a difference.
Form factor. This is the biggest one and there are several points I want to make about it. I have a Kindle 2. The iPad is just shy of being the size of two Kindle 2’s laid side to side. I can carry my Kindle anywhere in my laptop bag and barely notice it’s there. I can pull it out while standing on a crowded subway and very comfortably read it while holding it in a single hand – even with gloves on. The iPad is almost like carrying another small laptop. I wouldn’t try to use it standing up on the train or hold it one-handed. I don’t think you could realistically hold it and operate the touch screen with a single hand. The Kindle, in its case, is fairly indestructible. The iPad, while being almost twice the size has what seems to be an almost 100% glass surface, without the overall support that your laptop screen has from the rest of its body. I predict a lot of broken screens. I already carry my Mac Book Pro and iPhone to work every day. Would I carry an iPad too? I wouldn’t use it at work. As already mentioned, I wouldn’t use it on the train or bus unless I was able to snag a seat. I would probably generally leave it at home. Thus, as an eBook reader, it is fairly useless to me.
Connectivity: The Kindle has free 3G service. The iPad has WIFI and fairly expensive 3G paid service.
Content: Kindle taps into Amazon and has 400,000 books available and more coming all the time. iPad I believe has deals with six publishers at this time. Not sure how much of their content is available. If you can’t get the book you want on your device, it’s useless as a book reader.
So what does the iPad have that’s better than the Kindle in terms of it being an eBook reader.
Storage: 16-64 GB vs 2 GB. OK, but do you know how big eBooks are? A quick search of mine reveals that many are less than a single MB. Biggest are less than 5 MB. So my Kindle can hold somewhere between 400 and 2000 eBooks. I think I’m all set with 2 GB.
Display: Color vs. Black and White, and size. Have you opened a book lately? Text in books is 99.99% black and white. Most photos are black and white. Most charts are black and white. Granted, if you are reading a book where the color plates are a vital part of the experience of the book, the iPad wins. But in the vast, vast majority of books, you don’t really need a color display. Size is nice, but comes with its own drawbacks as mentioned above. For technical books with charts or diagrams, the larger display is definitely a plus.
In short, the iPad looks to be a pretty cool device, but a pretty crappy eBook reader. If I do get one, it will likely stay at home while I take my Kindle with me. But still, is the iPad “better” than the Kindle? That’s like asking if your iPhone is “better” than your wrist watch. Sure, it does a hell of a lot more, but it’s a senseless comparison. If you want to tell time, get a watch. If you want an eBook reader, get a Kindle. If you want a phone, media, pocket gaming device, get an iPhone. If you want a larger form factor media and gaming device, get an iPad.
Sadly, I think that despite all my arguments (which make perfect sense, are irrefutable, and are 100% correct 😉 ), the iPad could still be a Kindle killer. The iPad is a cool device and most likely many, many people will get them. If I had an iPad, I probably would not be able to justify going out and spending another $259 on another device, JUST to read books, which my iPad already let me do.
It will be interesting to see what Amazon’s next move will be. Just a week before the iPad was announced, Amazon revealed the Kindle application developer program. Now you’ll be able to make and sell apps that run on the Kindle, and sell them, just like iPhone and iPad apps. I’m not sure where that’s going to go. I can imagine there might be a few types of apps well suited to the Kindle. I can foresee a dedicated Instapaper or similar app that could be fantastic. But I can’t conceive that there will be thousands of actually useful Kindle apps. At any rate, it’s not a move that’s going to save the Kindle. What could save it is slashing its price in half. For a bit over $100, the Kindle would be a no brainer.