Technology Bytes: Is the Kindle the First Victim of the IPad?

Technology + Gear
by Michelle Schusterman Jan 28, 2010
With a comparable price and about a million more features, will the iPad kill the Kindle, or push Amazon to better development?

Personally, I’m not a fan of “*insert gadget here* killer”. I’d rather new advances in technology inspire and motivate others to keep up and evolve, not brutally end what was a good idea. So in the spirit of technological progression, check out TechCrunch’s Top 10 Reasons The Apple iPad Will Put Amazon’s Kindle Out of Business…I mean, Encourage Amazon to Design a New and Improved Kindle.

My favorite of their reasons:

  • The price, clearly. The iPad is cheaper than anticipated, and TechCrunch points out that it’s only $10 more than a Kindle DX. And “ereader” is only one of the iPad’s functions.
  • The sexy Apple experience. Yeah, that’s not what the Kindle was going for in the beginning. It tries to mimic a real paperback in electronic format, and it succeeds. But – and please know that I am one of those who love the feel of an actual book, flipping pages under my fingers – maybe that was just a stepping stone to get people accustomed to the idea. Reading a book on a Kindle, an iPhone, a laptop, it’s common now. The iPad makes the whole thing seem more advanced, futuristic, cool.
  • Formatting, formatting, formatting. TechCrunch said it perfectly:

    With the iPad, out of the gate publishers can create whole experiences. Want to create something unique in the market to draw consumers? Publishers can go beyond e-books, and create an app using one of the world’s most popular SDK platforms.

The Nexus One is pretty sweet – would it exist if the iPhone hadn’t come first? Whether you like them or not, Apple products inspire innovation. What do you think the iPad will lead to?

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