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The iPad has been announced. Apple hails this as one of their most innovative product offerings yet, however we are not sure this device can takeover the ebook reading market. In this article, we will go over a few details about why this device might have difficulty dominating the market of reading books electronically.
While the iPad is a beautiful device, it's strong points are not for reading. Because Apple did not create a dedicated electronic book reading device, it can not and will not successfully perform as an electronic book reader for most people and here is why:
The iPad weighs too much. It weighs 1.5/1.6 pounds, which in the electronic book market, is by far the heaviest. The iPad weighs 24 ounces while the Amazon Kindle 2 comes in at 10.2 ounces. This is a huge factor in electronic book reading. If you can not comfortably hold your eBook, what is the point of owning one?
No e-Ink screen. While it's certainly more attractive than an e-Ink enabled device such as the Kindle or Nook, the iPad incorporates a IPS LCD display. Now we have not tested this device yet, but from past experience with LCD (Including IPS LCD) screens, they are harder on the eyes than their e-Ink counterparts, bottom line. Much like reading things on a computer display, it does not make an enjoyable reading experience after long periods of time. E-Ink displays are very similar to reading text on a regular paper page and the Apple iPad simply can not compete with e-Ink readers in this way. This will not matter for some people, like us who spend almost the whole day in front of LCD monitors. What we are talking about is mainstream consumers, and more specifically the die-hard readers who perhaps already own an eBook reader.
Lessons can be learned from Apple's marketplace dominance with the Music industry and specifically, iTunes. iTunes is extremely successful and Apple is great at selling content in an easy and enjoyable way, electronic books will not be any different. Expect to easily purchase books directly to the device and have it with in moments. We expect the iPad to be wildly popular across many types of people, but are any buying it solely for the reading experience? We think most people are buying it for the multimedia experience among other things.
Lets say this right now, iPad will absolutely revolutionize the eMedia market. It may take a bit of time, but it will happen. We use the term eMedia vs. eBooks because we think the iPad will have more of an effect on magazines and newspapers than traditional books. The magazine and newspaper industries have been waiting for a device like iPad since readership started dropping as the popularity of the internet exploded and more people found their content online. We still believe that the iPad will go on to set sales records for regular books sales eventually, we just think that this will be because more people will have iPad devices then dedicated reading devices such as Kindle, Nook or Sony readers and the numbers will naturally increase with the amount of devices out there.
Bottom line: If you spend long hours reading with your paper book or dedicated reading device (any device with an e-Ink screen), the iPad may not be the best thing for you in terms of reading. This of course is speculation and we encourage everyone to test any device they are curious or interesting in buying. We look forward to properly reviewing the Apple iPad and if so, retracting our words...If we are proven wrong. Our iPad will be here in April and we will bring you the latest as soon as we can.
Other related articles:
iPad vs. Dedicated Reading Devices
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