Readers' Dilemma: The Kindle or the iPad

[Jamison Cush]

Before January 27, much talk in the tech world centered on eReaders, with offerings by Amazon, Sony, Barnes & Noble and others emerging from niche-gadget status to an exclusive product category. After January 27, it's clear that Apple is hoping the iPad does to eReaders that the iPod did for digital music players almost ten years ago, based on comments by Steve Jobs at the iPad unveiling. "Now Amazon's done a great job of pioneering this [eReading] functionality with their Kindle," Jobs claimed. "And we're going to stand on their shoulders and go a bit further."

So would bookworms in the market for an eReader be wise to hold out for Jobs describes as a "magical and revolutionary device"? Do the potential offerings above Amazon's shoulders actually surpass what is already available?

Pricing
As of February 2010, the Kindle and Barnes & Noble nook both retail for $259, Sony's Reader Daily Edition retails for $400, and the iPad will cost anywhere between $499 and $829, depending on the storage size and connectivity.

Also, an AT&T 3G data connection for your iPad (available in the $629-, $729-, $829-priced models) will run $15 for 250 MB of data service (approximately 150 to 200 e-books) and $30 a month for unlimited, all without an annual contract. The Kindle, nook, and Daily Edition all offer free 3G connectivity through various providers, and Wi-Fi in the case of the nook.

But what will the books cost? The current pricing of e-books is extremely volatile as Apple, Amazon, and book publishers all seem engaged in nothing less than a price war that may actually result in higher prices for the consumer.

In late January before the iPad announcement, Amazon released a new e-book pricing structure, limiting publishers to charge between $2.99 and $9.99 for titles, with each being at least 20% less than the cost of Amazon's lowest-listed price of a physical copy (previously, publishers were allowed to charge upward of $200 for an e-book, but most kept it around $10).

Apple's iBook store (announced along with the iPad) allows publishers a bit more flexibility, with titles priced between $13 and $15, according to the New York Times.

Apple's iBook pricing emboldened the major publishers; the first being Macmillan, who was upset at Amazon's rigid pricing. In late January, the publisher insisted Amazon loosen pricing restrictions, resulting in Amazon briefly pulling down all Macmillan's books from its Kindle store, before relenting and allowing Macmillan to price titles above the $9.99 limit. Hachette Book Group soon followed Macmillian's lead and struck a similar deal with Amazon. Rupert Murdoch, a vocal critic of Amazon's restrictive pricing, has been rumbling he'd like the same for his Harper Collins offerings.

Both Banes & Noble and Sony price their e-books competitively, $9.99 for most titles, though prices can creep up to $15.

Two Display Technologies
One of the most salient differences between the iPad and standard eReaders is the display technology. The nook, Kindle, Daily Edition, and other dedicated eReaders use e-ink displays that differ vastly from the iPad's LED-backlit LCD screen. E-ink actually looks like ink on a page, which eliminates the eyestrain commonly associated with prolonged LCD viewing. Brighthand Kindle 2 reviewer J.R. Nelson stated that for serious readers, e-ink the preferable technology. "All told, it [e-ink] makes for a reading experience that simply can't be matched by those offered on readers that use LCDs. People often talk about how great it is to read on the iPhone or iPod Touch, and I've used both my iPod Touch and various cell phones and PDAs to read an awful lot of text. There is, simply put, no comparison. At least, no comparison in which the LCDs come out on top."

With e-ink come limitations. Current e-ink displays cannot be backlit like LCD screens (which actually require backlighting to be visible) making it tough to read in low-light situations without external illumination (just like a real book), and compared to LCD screens, e-ink is sluggish and slow to refresh.

The other advantage LCD has over e-ink is that LCD renders color. Currently, the nook and Kindle are only available with grayscale (black and white) displays. The iPad with its LCD screen renders full-on color, a fact that isn't lost on magazine publishers like Conde Nast (Wired, GQ) and Time Inc. (Sports Illustrated, Time), which reports indicate are prepping tablet editions of their popular titles along with dedicated iPad applications.

The bottom line is that reading e-ink is very similar to reading a newspaper or novel, great for words, but limited with pictures, while reading off the iPad's display will be akin to reading text off an HDTV. Sure, the colors and pictures are great, but the screen may strain your eyes.

Battery Life
One of the advantages of e-ink is that once it splashes on the page, it doesn't consume any power to display. That is why most eReaders measure their battery life in terms of page turns, as it takes juice to refresh a page. Even then, devices like the Kindle 2 and nook can last for days or even weeks between charges with moderate use, provided the Wi-Fi or 3G is switched off.

Apple claims that its iPad can run for 10 hours between charges, though manufacturers typically measure battery life in optimum conditions resulting in an inflated number.

What Else Can It Do?
Currently, the iPad will do everything the iPhone and iPod Touch already do (sans make calls, without Skype anyway), and certainly more as new apps are developed exclusively to the device. So in addition to functioning as an eReader, expect a multi-media tablet for watching videos, listening to music, playing games, surfing the web, navigating via GPS, and just about anything else wily app developers wish.

Despite eReader limitations, manufacturers are still keen on expanding the device's functionality. Amazon recently released an SDK to select partners (EA and Zagat among them) with plans on opening up development to the masses in the early spring, and the Kindle does feature a basic web browser, which is especially great for text-heavy sites. Coupled with the AT&T 3G connection, the Kindle essentially offers free Internet service anywhere there is a connection. In addition, many eReaders can play MP3 files.

The nook runs a modified version of Google's Android OS, and others have a Linux-based OS, meaning future app development is a real possibility, if not an inevitability.

That said, don't expect eReaders to ever rival the iPad in terms of functionality. Thanks to e-ink screens, they are primarily book-reading devices. Expect card, word, and number games like Sudoku and solitaire along with recipe, dictionary, Wikipedia apps and perhaps business support suites.

Your Kindle on Your iPad
Currently, there are apps that allow users to read their Amazon and Barnes & Noble e-books on their iPod Touch and iPhone. If everything the iPhone can do, the iPad will do as well, users will be able to use their iPad as their Kindle.

Amazon and Barnes & Noble also have the same apps available for the PC. So any tablet running Windows XP, Vista, or 7 presumably offers the same basic eReader capabilities as the iPad.

The Future of eReaders
Amazon recently purchased touch-screen-display maker Touchco and merged it into its Kindle hardware division. Touchco's technology is very well suited for low-cost LCD displays, suggesting that Amazon may be creating a Kindle more like an iPad and less like a traditional eReader, complete with touch navigation. Users have to navigate current eReaders by either buttons (Kindle, Sony Reader Daily Edition) or a small LCD screen at the bottom of the device (nook), while the iPad will support multi-touch.

While there have long been rumblings of color e-ink displays making their way to the Kindle and other eReaders, there still are no indications of when color eReaders will hit the shelf.

Should Book Lovers Buy an iPad?
The iPad is a multi-functional device that just happens to have potentially great e-book support. However, its prohibitive cost, LCD display, and battery life make it a poor Kindle substitution for any voracious reader. That said, users might find room for both an eReader and an iPad in their life, if analyst predictions are to be believed.

"Media tablets are additive to the mobile device market," said ABI Research analyst Jeff Orr, whose firm forecasted tablet shipments to increase from 4 million in 2010 to 57 million in 2015. "They aren't replacing laptops, netbooks, smartphones or dedicated e-book readers. It's extremely rare to find a new or proposed technology replacing a prior one. Most often the combination of technology products create greater choice for consumers."

 

Related Articles:

• Many iPhone Developers Enthusiastic about the Apple iPad
• Apple Unveils the iPad
• Amazon Kindle 2 Review
• Barnes & Noble nook Review

[Antoine Wright]

Eh, I would think that the real dilemma of any device/service marketing to be an point for an ebook platform is DRM/fair-use and how users and publishers are accommodated. Any input on those factors? As I would assume people would like to keep the ability to read their digital content no matter what device.

[questionfear]

As an avid reader, there's no comparison. e-ink is significantly more paperlike...and being able to only plug my Kindle in every 3 weeks is huge.

The iPad is cool, but it's not the same as a dedicated ebook reader.

[questionfear]

Eh, I would think that the real dilemma of any device/service marketing to be an point for an ebook platform is DRM/fair-use and how users and publishers are accommodated. Any input on those factors? As I would assume people would like to keep the ability to read their digital content no matter what device.

There are ways to insure your books are portable across multiple formats...

And even if you conciously only buy drm-free books, applications like Calibre can convert them to other formats. If you have an unprotected ePUB, for example, you can convert it to unprotected Mobi and load it on a kindle.

[Shoey5]

There really is no choice to make. Anyone who takes a look at the kindle or Sony line of ebook readers can clearly see the difference in the screen. If your going to be reading novels and want to save your eyes the iPad can't compete with the screens used in the forementioned products. It's like comparing reading an actual book (kindle or Sony) to reading a virtual book on your computer monitor (iPad).

If you value your eyes the decision is as easy as that!

[Hook]

Actually, I find backlit screens much easier to read than eInk and especially prefer being free of ambient lighting conditions.

[r0k]

I have a question. I considered getting a Kindle at one point. I saw it as an ereader with "free" wireless. Can you read email on your Kindle? If you stop buying books for a "long time", does the network quit working? I already own quite a few Kindle books that I read on my iPod Touch and Windows PC but sadly not my Mac . If I could check my email without coughing up $15 or more a month for service (like iPad), I would consider a Kindle, black-and-white slow-refresh display notwithstanding. The 3 week battery life is also a huge plus.

@Hook: I agree that backlighting can be a huge advantage but when I visit the eye doctor, they rank "computer use" as one of the top contributors to eye strain. The only documented case of book eye strain I can think of is Abraham Lincoln reading by candle light (insufficient ambient light).

[Magellan]

Actually, I find backlit screens much easier to read than eInk and especially prefer being free of ambient lighting conditions.

There's one in every crowd. :-)

[Antoine Wright]

There are ways to insure your books are portable across multiple formats...

And even if you conciously only buy drm-free books, applications like Calibre can convert them to other formats. If you have an unprotected ePUB, for example, you can convert it to unprotected Mobi and load it on a kindle.

As much as I like the solution, that's unacceptable for most folks. Its enough to ask people to migrate ebook content from one device to another - publishers don't like that as they see separate devices as separate licensees needed for the content - but adding a layer to convert something...

...that's the geeks solution. If ebooks go that route then all devices will fail.

[Ed Hardy]

Can you read email on your Kindle?

If you have a web-based e-mail service like Gmail, you can use the Kindle's basic browser to read your messages.

If you stop buying books for a "long time", does the network quit working?

According to Amazon, your service will not be turned off, even if you never buy a single book.

There are limitations. Amazon warns users that if they use extreme amounts of data, they could lose their free Net access. I believe this is there to stop hackers from abusing the system. I doubt you could do enough web access on a Kindle to get in trouble, but if you did something like hack the device to make it tether for your laptop, Amazon has the right to shut you off.

Keep in mind, if Amazon doesn't put something in the Terms of Service that says it can turn your service off under extreme conditions, you could sue Amazon for breach of contract if they turned off your Kindle service no matter what you did, including hacking the device to use use 200 GB of data a day.
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