iPad vs. Kindle: Will Apple's New Product Make eReaders Obsolete?

iPad vs. Kindle: can a winner be declared this early? Apple has finally debuted its game-changing iPad and as the company unveils its eBook-killing features, it seems more and more likely that the tablet device is poised to leave other eReaders in the dust. Apple's iPad will have an "iBooks" store, and will feature partnerships with Penguin, HarperCollins, Macmillan, Simon and Schuster, and Hachette. Apple founder Steve Jobs said:

Now Amazon has done a great job of pioneering this... we're going to stand on their shoulders for this. Our new app is called iBooks.

Even as Apple has prepared to debut the iPad, new eReaders have been debuting by the minute, and front-runners like Amazon's Kindle are scrambling to make their devices more appealing by adding features such as apps or color.

What do you think? Will any of these eReaders stand up to the iPad? Or will Apple dominate the eBook market from here on out? Vote on which eReaders might last in the slideshow below.

Amazon Kindle 2

Perhaps the most popular eReader currently on the market, Amazon's Kindle 2 (an update of its original Kindle) has a lot going for it. "The well-established Whisper Sync technology lets people keep track of a single book across multiple devices, there's a physical keyboard right up front, and the device can even browse the web," says Engadget. Drawbacks include the lack of support for ePub formats, and the inability to share eBooks with other devices.

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Comments

[SallieParker]

09:41 PM on 03/21/2010

NYTimes now is pushing its Adobe AIR (desktop Flash-base­d) edition, and it's a beaut. It is better than both the print edition and the online edition. It is configured for the iPad form-facto­r. No reason why it couldn't work on other digital readers, I suppose...­if they do color, and can use Flash and other interactiv­e technology­.

Interestin­gly, this end-runs around the whole problem of Apple refusing to use Flash on its online iPad and iPhone interactio­n, since the AIR software and the newspaper are entirely downloaded and archived to the device. My guess is that this is the new big thing. I don't plan to buy an iPad anytime soon, but I can see that this where newspapers really want to go.

[Onutz]

10:26 PM on 03/15/2010

>>I'm a kindle user and I'll never buy the ipad. I have absolutely NO interest in it at all. It's going to flop.

[Somali]

01:01 PM on 02/01/2010

I'll consider the ipad. I mean, for about the same price, it gives u an e-reader plus way more.

[marijam]

01:51 AM on 02/01/2010

I'm a kindle user and I'll never buy the ipad. I have absolutely NO interest in it at all. It's going to flop.

[crayola 08b]

12:59 AM on 01/29/2010

oddly enough i really don't see the iPad being a Kindle killer. not just yet, maybe over time but i reckon that the people who buy the kindle or other ereaders don't care for having about all the extra bells and whistles of the iPad. they just want a fairly convenient slab of technology to read their books on, all the other features is just a distractio­n.

[Omelo]

06:57 PM on 01/28/2010

It's no better than a Kindle, if you just want a Kindle.

Ipad is no better than the Kindle if you just like to read books, it has a better screen, but the Ipad is the gadget I'd buy to myself. As a frequent business traveller the Ipad allows me to read book, magazines, newspapers­, web access, reply e-mails, watch video, listen to music, see pictures and more. Whoever spent 4 hours in and out airports and an average of 4 hours in a flight knows you can't live up of just one media.
Kindle is a good product, Ipad is amazing, though it is far from perfect.

[Unimatrix42]

06:30 PM on 01/28/2010

The iPad will make a lot of things obsolete -- including the Kindle.

It will make crappy netbooks obsolete for starters. It can serve as a portable gaming device, music player, video player, communicat­ions tool, productivi­ty tool with the new iWork Apps, and eBook reader -- as well as giving users access to all of the Apps in the App Store for iPhone/iPo­d Touch, and every new App which will be written specifical­ly for iPad by the time this gizmo is available.

Seems like a game changer/pr­oduct killer to me.

As for the Flash argument -- people are repeating the "No Flash Support" meme today without really understand­ing why Apple doesn't support Flash or maybe considerin­g that Apple has good reasons for not supporting Flash -- which they do.

And it's aggressive­ly priced! What's the problem folks?

:P

[canfemlib]

02:38 PM on 01/28/2010

I would to say that the i-pad doesn't look very purse-frie­ndly. Maybe if it folded in half. Of course, judging by the name of the device, I suspect that the female user wasn't a big considerat­ion!

[pammiethekid]

05:22 PM on 03/18/2010

Like you, I've always carried smaller purses, but this may be a game changer for me. And I think it was designed with women in mind, if you look at how nicely the back is sculpted. I'm hoping it feels as good as it looks. If it does, I'll buy one and splurge on a new purse to carry it around in.

[boomer7391]

02:04 PM on 01/28/2010

wow...800 toy without any toys....ju­st a what? oh, facebook, pictures? why bother?
most of us who enjoy reading enjoy the book part of it too
my book will never crash or have to be replaced

[RationalDubSteppa]

12:45 PM on 01/28/2010

The iPad is nice, but no Flash support makes it a dud for me. That might be tolerable on an iphone but certainly not on a bigger more capable device.

iPad without Flash support is a huge fail!!

[Maxamillionair]

11:23 AM on 01/28/2010

can there be any doubt? apple wins. kindel is being pulled and unsold unites RTVd. check out your local office depot or best buy this afternoon.

where are the bell & howell computers? where's the eagle? where are IMB's pcs now. museums. where's apple? everywhere­. cutting edge.

[bobbobato]

10:01 AM on 01/28/2010

The kindle won't last; computer hardware and displays are still much too expensive to allow a single purpose device.
However, I don't think it's history. By the 2020s, tech should be cheap enough that the kindle could be reintroduc­ed. Or at least, a kindle-lik­e device.

[TobyPLD]

08:32 AM on 01/28/2010

Plus there's an app for that. (the kindle app). I have it and it's pretty good.

[TobyPLD]

08:30 AM on 01/28/2010

Like comparing book to a quote.

[NeoStar9]

12:30 AM on 01/28/2010

It's not fair to compare the Kindle with the iPad. The iPad is a computer in the end. Let's be honest about it. The Kindle, Nook, etc are dedicated ebook readers and as such should be compared to each other not the iPad.