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.
Oh, one more point in the iPad’s favor, that I just forgot: backlight. I do wish the Kindle had a backlight.
“That’s like asking if your iPhone is “better†than your wrist watch.”
Are there people who carry iPhones and wear wristwatches simultaneously? It seems to me like I don’t even see wristwatches much anymore, now that everyone has cell phones.
Interesting points otherwise.
Very true, and I actually meant to make that point.
With the Kindle iPhone app, all the Amazon books are also available (in a way) on the iPad.
“in a way” is the key point. The Kindle iPhone app has a small fraction of the features of the Kindle itself. And as it stands, it will just scale up the app to fill the full screen, which will look like crap, if I understand how it works correctly.
The kindle 3 will really be the definitive e-book, it’s all about reading, you know!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GI0Zry_R4RQ
Also Amazon seem to be making moves to have a Kindle applications of a variety of platforms, so that you can read your ebooks on more than just a Kindle. However, it’s my understanding of the new iBook store, that ebooks you buy with have DRM so that you cannot transfer your ebooks to a non-Apple device. Not that big of a deal for some, but is something that I personally like.
Lower the price of the Kindle a bit to further distance it from the iPad. Remind everyone of the battery life advantage, and in newer models add backlighting (even the crappy old school nintendo gameboy advanced backlighting would do) to the thing. These are the things I would do ASAP if I was trying to keep my device selling.
The iPad is a push to the future. An imperfect example of things to come. Hospitals, schools, stores, warehouses,restaurants…. the iPad will be everywhere. Why not embrace it. Yes, I know it doesn’t have our beloved flash but look past that and remember that things are changing for the people we all write software for. No technology can stay on top forever (Not saying that flash is going away).
I didn’t even think before about the free vs expensive connectivity difference.
But still, for me, the huge difference is e-ink versus the iPad screen. Yes, the ebook app has lots of eye-candy page twirl animation and a nice ripped-off (from Delicious Library ) wood shelve interface. But it will be useless to read on a sunny day at the park / beach. Doesn’t even have to be that sunny. A reflective screen is not as comfortable as e-ink. I can’t read a PDF on my laptop for more than 20 minutes or so. I can read on e-ink for endless hours, as much as for a “normal” book. I think only people used to e-ink will understand this anyway. I am a proud owner of a Sony reader and as you mention, I take it everywhere, read on the tram/bus/wherever and whenever I have to wait more than a minute, use it with one hand, even while walking sometimes. Also, ability to import PDFs (or whatever you can print) is a plus.
I’d also like to emphasize the different technology the screen of these devices use. The whole ebook reader phenomena has happened because of the e-ink, which allows you to use the device in broad daylight and have a huge battery time. Without these I simply don’t understand how people can refer to the iPad as an ebook reader. iPad should be a cool device for playing videos or browsing while you’re on the road but it is inferior to the Kindle when it comes to reading ebooks.
Something you didn’t mention, but 1024×768 screen resolution on iPad seems mediocre for displaying text crisply. But I guess we’ll know when we see it…
I followed the CES news and found some info about a “new” display technology called “mirasol-display”. The preview videos look very promising. Replace that kindle-eInk display with a mirasol display and the situation would look vastly different: color, video, long battery life. All this in the size of a kindle. Now this would be cool. 🙂
The funny thing about the mirasol-display advances is that if they become a viable substitution for led screens in tablets and laptops, Apple will use them also.
Now, the iPad will not intersect all of the Kindle’s usage scenarios and demography. If Kindle marketers focus on the differentiating features, accent the situations where the Kindle will kick the iPad’s a$$ and market to the right people then Kindle will probably do just fine post iPad.
No premature product death necessary…….
iPad has different target audience. Apple never intend to be Kindle killer. iPad will mainly be used for media usage, students of certain courses and business people on their tour.
iBooks store will have text books also and iWork will change the way we create word document and excel spreadsheet and presentation slides. You can import MS Office files into it and edit. Very soon we will see many companies following multi gesture office suite.
iPad has no competition with Kindle whatsoever. Kindle will continue selling as good as they are.
I am getting iPad not to read books but for iWork, ability to watch high definition video on the go and photo editing apps that are already amazing on iPhone but I am sure some incredible editing app will be released soon exclusively for iPad.
It will be in sleep mode so when you wanna use just slide it open but laptop takes a minute to start and its not goo to eave laptop in sleep mode in laptop bag. So iPad is the solution.
Good blog post; you’re thoughts on Kindle (compared to iPad) pretty much mirror my own. The iPad does seem like an awesome device but not something that is going to replace my Kindle 2.
It isn’t ONLY about reading. It is also about how school kids could use this product to display school books with COLOR displays and with the ability to implement video into a school book. My son is disabled and can’t turn pages of a book but he can turn the pages on an iPad. If his school books were on the iPad, his life would change dramatically.
I’ve been looking to make a purchase and have been researching both the ipad and the kindle. I think at this stage I will go for the kindle because…
1. I primarily want it for reading books on the go. Something I can pull out when waiting for the kids kinda thing.
2. There is no ongoing monthly costs for connectivity. This is a big bonus to me. I hate being locked into contracts.
3. The E-ink. I agree, when you are going to spend hours looking at the screen, it has to be comfortable viewing.
4. I live in Australia and I hate waiting for a book to arrive in the mail. Instant delivery would be fabulous.
5. It is cheaper than an ipad.
The negatives about the kindle…
1. I have a running amazon wish-list and looking through that it seems there is only a few dollars difference in the price of books compared to the kindle version which is a bit disappointing. However, if amazon would reduce the price of the kindle to about $150, in my mind it would make up for the cost of the e-books and I would be in there ordering my kindle pronto. (I will in fact, wait a while to see if something like this happens anytime soon.)
2. What I think will always bother me with any of this technology is the way it is constantly improving and changing making your dollar investment an expensive excercise after a couple of years.
3. With technology changing all the time, will my heavy investment in e-books be wasted when the kindle is superceded by some completely new technology? And will I be left wishing that I had put that money into the good old paper and ink book instead?
As for the ipad. I agree that it appeals to a different audience and different uses. Although if they made it smaller, used the e-ink technology and increased the number of books to chose from, then they would most certainly kill the kindle.
And yes, after that long blab I actually left something out….
I think the wrist watch vs cellphone analogy is applicable. I hate having to stop what I’m doing, use two hands to unzip my handbag, fish around in there to find my phone and then flip it open just to see the time. It is much quicker and easier to simply glance at your wrist. 😉
I use the Kindle app on my iPad and absolutely love it. I have a good library growing now that is available on my laptop or iPad as Amazon allows me to sync books, bookmarks, highlights, etc across 5 machines. I love having my photos, books, music, e-mail, and time wasters (games, etc) all in one place. I take my iPad with me wherever I go.
I bought my wife a Kindle for Christmas, but after she saw my iPad, that’s what she wanted (and got) for her birthday.
I am very impressed with the Kindle but don’t think the two are really comparable. As an e-book reader, the Kindle with it’s e-ink and long battery life, is better, but only marginally so. I can get around the battery life issue, but reading the iPad outside in the sun can be difficult. Other than that, the Kindle reader app has all the same functionality as the Kindle itself. In fact, you can sync books across them.
In the end, having used both devices extensively, I think the Kindle will be relegated to a low-volume, niche product. I think it’s the combination of the iPad’s flexibility and Amazon’s own Kindle app that are the real Kindle-killers.
(P.S. I’m sending this while sitting on a train from Chicago and listening to Jane’s Addiction. I’m done checking the news and e-mail and can’t wait to get back to my book….)