Kindle vs iPad…

05/24/2010 in From the Back Porch... 3 Comments

I love my ipad, I love my Macbook Pro, I love my iphone and I love my ipod. But I also love my Kindle. There’s so much to be said about both.

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. I do. The Kindle is a a totally different device.

Here’s where the Kindle wins out:
-Battery life: 10 days vs. 10 hours.
-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 waiting in line at an airport getting ready to board and very comfortably read it while holding it in a single hand. The iPad is almost like carrying another small laptop. I wouldn’t try to use it while standing up on an airport tram 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 hope not but predict a lot of broken screens.

-Connectivity: The Kindle has free 3G service. The iPad has WIFI and fairly expensive 3G paid service. Of course unless you jailbreak it.

-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. Of course you could download the free Kindle app on your ipad and send your Kindle books to your iPad.

-Storage: 16-64 GB vs 2 GB. OK, but do you know how big eBooks are? A quick search 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.

In short, the iPad is a pretty cool device (remember I love it), but a pretty crappy eBook reader in my humble opinion and from my experience. The question still remains, is the iPad “better” than the Kindle? That’s like asking if your iPhone is “better” than your wrist watch. Sure, it does a heck 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.

It is very possible that the iPad could still be a Kindle killer. The iPad is a cool device and most likely many, many more people will get them.

It will be interesting to see what Amazon’s next move will be with the Kindle. I would suggest they lower the price a bit. I do think the Kindle’s best days are ahead.