Large-Screen Kindle Won’t Mean Squat if Apple Tablet Arrives

http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2009/05/kindle-vs-apple/

by edw519 • 17 years ago

11 16 17 years ago

jdfreefly• 17 years ago

Yes, because if Apple decides to do something, the rest of us should pack up our compilers and go home.

Hmmm...this sounds eerily similar to all the people who predicted that the Kindle would be a failure because of the iPhone's existence.

Even if Apple releases a kickass tablet, I still want a Kindle. I hate reading books on an LCD screen and having to worry about battery life. I want a simple, thin device that doesn't strain my eyes that I can leave in my bag and not worry about. Oh, and I can buy and download books instantly without worrying about wifi. Sold.

bjtitus2• 17 years ago

I agree, they are different products with different markets. A tablet is NOT suitable for books. A special device with an e-ink style screen is the only suitable option.

catone• 17 years ago

I don't know that this argument is necessarily valid. I own an iPhone but I don't own a Kindle, and haven't used one for more than a couple of minutes, but a lot of people I've talked to who own both swear by the Kindle's e-Ink screen. From what I hear, for long periods of reading, and for outdoor reading, the Kindle beats the iPhone (and because of things like screen and battery, not form factor).

Certainly, an Apple tablet could do a lot more than a large Kindle, but it won't necessarily "render it moot." The Kindle might still provide a better experience for the one function is it meant to: reading large quantities of text... and if there is a market for for a device that just does that (and there seems to be judging from the Kindle's early success so far), then it will likely continue to do well.

whacked_new• 17 years ago

It's simply a bad argument.

Task: read a book. Choice 1: miniature computer, 5 hours battery. Choice 2: a book with digital annotation and search, 20+ hours battery... is there a choice?

Oh and did I mention the task is to read a book?

Sure, there are people who are fine with a glowing, back-lit reading device that lets you check email simultaneously. But, the mobile phone replaced the tethered phone. The computer did not replace the book. ebook devices are what will replace them. Where the line is blurred, does not warrant a discussion of "don't mean squat if..." at least not in the next 10 years or so.

electromagnetic2• 17 years ago

The thing I find laughable is that they're depicting it like a giant iPhone. From what I remember HP had a fully touch-screen tablet, however it seemed to get removed for a return to a full-function tablet (at least from what I've seen in Canada and the UK). So I highly doubt Apple would enter this market, again like depicted.

Apple has a strong history of entering existing markets and reinventing it. The brought considerable style to desktops, they brought sleekness to laptops and they turned an mp3 player from an exercise/geek accessory to a fully fledged consumer product and they're doing the same with touch-screen phones.

Apple has never been the first into the market. It waits, looks and acts. Unless they have some truly amazing idea for a touch-screen-only tablet, they won't touch the market with one, because they all seem to have flopped (or ended up getting shipped with a docking station with a keyboard that could collapse to the body of the tablet: something Apple would never do, after the whole iPod nano thing in Europe of having to ship with a case, I doubt they want the embarrassment again). Honestly, I can see Apple shipping a fully functional tablet, however it will be running OS X and not the iPhone port.

Honestly, if I saw something like their mock-up it would be instantly rejected by me. I wouldn't, nor couldn't touch the thing. The iPhone is cool, making a foot wide iPhone is not cool.

vaksel• 17 years ago

Books are probably not "hip" enough for Apple to do

kirse• 17 years ago

-- Wired: By contrast, e-book readers are good at basically one thing: Storing and displaying monochrome text and simple graphics.

E-ink is the best technology just for that purpose and if I'm going to buy a Book Reader I want it to be perfect for reading books, not a half-assed compromise for surfing the web and spamming useless Twitter updates to all my friends.

-- Make no mistake: There are many more people who would be interested in a general-purpose tablet than in an e-book reader.

The "many more people" are called tech nerds and their holy grail has already been realized as the open-source CrunchPad, which will be far cheaper than any mega-sized iPhone.

The only thing I'll be doing in response to this Apple rumor is day trading AAPL options.

electromagnetic2• 17 years ago

The biggest question of all is price: $360 for a Kindle 2, or likely $3,000 for a megaPhone.

skwiddor• 17 years ago

-- Wired: By contrast, e-book readers are good at basically one thing: Storing and displaying monochrome text and simple graphics.

And that's why they are a win. I have a 15" laptop, a 10" laptop, a Sony Ebook, a G1, a 5.1mp camera and an MP3 Walkman. Each one has a niche and that's where I use it. I don't use the ebook as an mp3 player (though it can) and I don't want to hook up a keyboard to it (though I could). I use it to read books on the bus.

jerf• 17 years ago

One unreleased product is doomed because another hypothetical unreleased product might be coming? Amazon should just pack it in, they don't have a single product in their entire warehouse that can compete against the hypothetical products of six months from now.

buckler• 17 years ago

With the option limited to expensive/not very well-built iRex iLiad at the moment, I am happy that more large-screen devices are coming out. Meanwhile, after researching & researching, I'm still reluctant to adapt to the new technology (dedicated ebook readers) as the "perfect" device still seems a couple of years away or so. Just feels like any upcoming devices will become outdated very quickly.

At the moment, I simply want neither e-ink devices nor LCD devices. While color & refresh time are attractive, LCD devices come at a cost when it comes to serious reading (eyestrain, battery life). Also, like others have mentioned here, I'd want a dedicated reader w/o the distractions. However, the prospects are still enthralling though, with Mary Lou Jespen's Pixel Qi developing LCDs specifically designed for reading for example. Whether it's new e-ink devices, CrunchPad, or the Apple tablet, the innovations (& lowering costs) are just so exciting for an avg. consumer here.

I'm curious about the extent to which traditional publishers will shape this market. They must face the similar dilemma at the moment... As for the large Kindle, there's the monochrome constraint & Amazon's control over functionalities, pricing, etc. With something like Apple's tablet, they would be reluctant since users would simply browse free content available on the Internet.

drcode• 17 years ago

Wired usually has more thoughtful articles than this. The selling points for the Kindle are the battery life and outside-viewable screen. The Tablet iPhone won't address these at all.

frig• 17 years ago

Apple tablet is probably a much larger ipod touch.

Primary notivation is to make the itunes video store stop sucking so bad: currently the only pleasant way to watch videos from itunes is on an appletv (at home), or on a computer (clunky, most people don't carry laptops), or on an ipod (invitation to eyestrain, especially for older people), or on a handful of ipod docking solutions (niche products).

Figure the screen resolution is big enough to show full 720p content and is just large enough to fill the field of view held at the reading distance used when reading "books".

It might have a fancy OLED screen (for power consumption and aesthetic reasons; you don't want the battery running out midway through a 2-hour film, and you don't want the device getting unpleasantly warm to hold midway through a 2-hour film).

Like the other ipod touches it'd be iphone-os compatible, with special optimized clients for eg youtube and sites like hulu (if hulu wants) but not necessarily a general-purpose flash capable browser. It'd be capable of being a nifty pda but apple isn't going to try to hard on that; it's marketed as a media tablet that can run productivity software from the apple store if that's your pleasure, and has ical and so on built in.

Having always-on wireless internet (either from at+t or verizon) makes sense; since the apple aesthetic is to make stuff that "just works" selling it with an always-working internet connection is a big win (even if eg you're not allowed to download films from itunes over the 3g nework).

If it sells it'll be a decent platform for ebooks even if it's not using an eink screen: nice form factor, amazon and other ebook-reading clients, capable of buying ebooks anywhere, and already in a lot of people's hands (via eg the iphone, which is platform-compatible).

checkwit• 17 years ago

Apple Newton 2. I used to have one of those.

Large-Screen Kindle Won’t Mean Squat if Apple Tablet Arrives

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