Comments on: Apple iPad vs. Amazon Kindle

By: Andrea Monti

Andrea Monti — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 13:07:35 +0000

A kindLE of Magic (or, why Apple’s Ipad is a bluff)

February 7th, 2010

Despite Apple’s claims, Ipad can’t be an Amazon Kindle competitor. Here is why.

Apple’s Ipad announcement raised the usual hype on general press and even gained the cover of The Economist. Steve Jobs said, during his Yerba Buena talk, that Jeff Bezos, at Amazon, did a great job with Kindle, but Apple is actually going a step ahead whit its Ipad. Well, of course Mr. Jobs needs to say that, but the statement might prove to be incorrect.

A question first: what is the Ipad? Answer: a keyboardless computer (but if you want, you may purchase a separate one.)

Sure, you can read ebooks (with some fancy visual trick), you can write your papers and run your presentations, and do your math with Numbers, and enjoy thousand of Iphone application, and surf the Internet and do everything a normal computer does. So, back to the point, the Ipad is just a (not-so-powerful) general purpose computer.

And now comes Kindle.

Question: what is Kindle?

Answer: a book reading machine.

Kindle does just one thing (allowing people to read books) and does it damn good. The battery lasts for a long time, the download of the purchased book is fast and free almost everywhere in the world, eyes aren’t tired by reading through the screen, usability is at every opposite-thumbs-equipped human being’s range, learning curve is measurable in terms of minutes.

I don’t actually know whether or not the Ipad will be a bluff, what is sure, is that Amazon Kindle works like a kind of magic.

Thank you Mr. Bezos.

By: Craig T.

Craig T. — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 04:02:13 +0000

I agree completely with you that the most important thing about any e-reader is content. It is the final straw that pushed me to the Kindle 2 rather than the nook. Other features are useless if you can’t get the books you want. Although it seems the iPad can read Amazon, B&N, and other books with the corresponding apps. It also looks like Apple may be the bully and force book prices up, though, as is being seen with the Amazon/Macmillan fight. We will have to see the ultimate result.

I also think the price on iPad vs. Kindle 2 is not even close. To get a 3G capable iPad you are looking at a minimum of $629 (close to $400) more than the Kindle, and that does not even get you 3G (a monthly charge). The DX, however, is going to have to do a big price drop or it will be in trouble.

I completely disagree with your comment that multitasking killed Windows Mobile. Firstly, I think WinMo is still kicking, but it has been hurt by slow development, as WinMo 7 has taken forever to get out (and we are still waiting). I don’t know why any device, especially one more powerful than a phone would not do multitasking. This thing is supposed to take the place of a netbook or other tablet, but anything with Windows is going to multitask no problem. Seems interesting.

By: Jeff

Jeff — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 02:10:12 +0000

I suspect that e-book reading won’t be the primary use of the iPad. Rather, rich media content of all types will find a large audience among iPad users. A new breed of apps is also likely to emerge.

I’m also not really bothered by the lack of multitasking. On my netbook running Ubuntu UNR I rarely multitask. I think iPad is a really great start for a first generation product. We’ll see what it’s doing in a few years. The mobile & portable computing market is going to be dramatically different then, regardless whether the iPad succeeds or not.

By: admin

admin — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 23:15:09 +0000

No multitasking isn’t that bad in itself. I believe that it’s multitasking that killed Windows Mobile. It just doesn’t work as well on mobile devices

By: PaulR

PaulR — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 22:35:47 +0000

I still love my Kindles. I have a K2i and my wife has a KDXi. The iPad is just an overblown iPod Touch by the look of it. I already have one of those and it fits in my shirt pocket which the iPad can’t do. The K2i can slip into my trousers pocket if I want my hands free. I travel a lot. My next trip will be from Sydney to Beijing, about 19 hours total travel time. I’ll be happily reading my Kindle all the way on a single charge, while the iPad users will be reduced to reading airline magazines and playing tiddlywinks in the aisles. Unless they have an airline power plug (more $$) and their seat happens to have airline power available. I’ve been on a number of flights where they had the seat power socket, but there was no power because the breaker had tripped or the crew simply hadn’t bothered to turn it on. And that was in business class. Not my problem any more with the Kindle! As for ePub (like in the million or so free Google books), I can read those on my Kindles too, by converting them to mobi format on my laptop. It would be nice, though, if the Kindles had native ePub support in the future, as that would save me a couple of small conversion steps.

Nearly forgot to mention. Apple doesn’t allow me to copy files to my iPod Touch using the USB cable, even though Apple uses it to sync other iPod stuff (Calendars, notes and contact lists) to the PC via the USB. So the technology’s there but they’ve locked it out. App developers other than Apple have to use the wireless network connection, which really sucks if you have your laptop and iPod handy but are not in a WiFi zone, like all day when I’m in the office. What other things will be locked out of the iPad to suit Apple’s convenience?

By: Al

Al — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 17:13:55 +0000

It seems to me that if one uses the Kindle App, the Barnes and Noble App and the Sony App and also has access to Gutenberg, feedbooks, manybooks, smashbooks, Lulu, etc that this reader has access to way more books than any other reader on the market. I think Amazon would be smart to add the ability to buy books off any site, or at a minimum, Adobe DRM ePub.

Meanwhile I am going to wait until the actual device comes out to find out how long the battery lasts with wireless and whispernet off and no web browsing or game playing to see how it stacks up as an e-Reader.

If the iPad can display all my RSS feeds as automatically as Apple Mail can, then I would be sorely tempted to buy the 16GB model just to do that and have a lot of other stuff available as well. On the other hand, I fully expect the next Kindle to be in Mirasol Color or some other color screen. Not as vivid as the iPad, but a month on a single charge far outweighs the advantages of the iPad, also ability to read outside, which I do a lot of in the warmer months.

By: Mori

Mori — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 16:29:35 +0000

No multitasking – don’t forget about it, since it’s one of the biggest let-downs of iPad. No built-in SD card reader (only via adapter, which has to be bought separately) is another reason why you might not love iPad (or should be call it iFail?). If you’re looking for USB port – go and buy yet another adapter from Apple…

By: Matt

Matt — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 12:17:53 +0000

I am a Kindle 2 owner and lover! However, I think IPad will be a significant challenger to the Kindle DX. For the same money it can do WAY more. Yes the Kindle DX does books better, much better, but the iPad can do video, music, games and other useful applications much better. The iPad user interface kills the Kindle DX and the aesthetics of the device will certainly lure many buyers. I’ve always thought the price of the DX is outrageous and now, compared to the iPad, consumers will increasingly look at what level of technology their $500 will buy. However, I believe the iPad will take a bigger bite out of the netbook market.

Personally, as I write this post on my iMac, I plan on happily sticking with the Kindle 2. I love it for the selection Amazon provides and the eink technology.

Ultimately the only thing that will kill the Kindle is if Amazon fails to innovate aggressively.