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Is Apple Tablet a Kindle Killer?
By Greg | January 29, 2010
I’m sure you’ve all read about the latest Kindle killer – the Apple Tablet. I just wanted to see what TKW readers think about the latest ereader to become available. I’m writing about this one, as opposed to some of the others (Nook, Sony) because it has generated the greatest amount of interest and seems to be the best competition out there for the Kindle.
I’ve seen a bunch of articles in the last week or so, especially since Wednesday when Apple unveiled the Tablet, both pro and con regarding the Tablet as being the Kindle killer.
Personally, I don’t think the Tablet or anything else will really be a Kindle killer. They might take away some of the market share from Amazon but the Kindle will not be dead. Here are some of the reasons I say this. The Kindle is half the price of the Tablet (the wifi model is $499 and $629 for the 3G model) plus the cost of the books is going to be much less for the Kindle. You’ll have to pay $30/month for the wireless service for the Tablet while the Whispernet service from Amazon is free. Also, the Kindle is just made for reading (at least for now) so people that are just interested in reading will pay half of the price of a Tablet to get a Kindle and use their computers for all the other stuff that the Tablet can do. And one of the main reasons I like the Kindle so much is the e-ink screen – the Tablet is back lit. After looking at a computer all day long I don’t want to continue looking a back lit screen when I’m reading.
I do think that the Tablet is a pretty cool device though, I’m not writing this to demean the Tablet at all. In fact, I already own some Apple products (MacBook, Ipod) and I’m very happy with them as I’m sure owners of the Tablet will be happy with their device. I just don’t think that the Tablet will kill the Kindle.
Here’s a few articles saying that the Kindle will still be here, Tablet or not:
iPad as Kindle Killer is more storyline than reality
Kindle not ready to surrender to iPad
The iPad is not a Kindle Killer
I know there’s a lot of people on both sides of this issue, so do you think that the Apple Tablet will kill the Kindle, or not?
Topics: Ereader, Kindle, Kindle 2, Kindle DX |
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January 29th, 2010 at 2:35 pm
I just can’t buy that the iPad is a Kindle killer, for the following reasons:
http://smallrectangularobjects.com/2010/01/27/thoughts-on-the-apple-ipad/
I also agree with the majority of net talk that the iPad as a device in between a laptop and a smartphone is pretty underwhelming. Lack of Flash, multitasking, expandable memory, etc. doom the iPad, at least this first generation.