This article by Megan McArdle on the escalating war between the Kindle and the iPad
over who gets to replace my print library (and thus, give me my basement back) is very interesting; unfortunately – and this isn’t Megan’s fault – I still haven’t decided which one I prefer, and thus can recommend. Clearly what needs to happen is that each company should send me one to, ah, ‘analyze.’ Obviously, if one sends me one and the other doesn’t, that will make the results pretty much a foregone conclusion, yes? I’ve even updated the Wish List on the Filthy Lucre page accordingly for said company representatives (and company representatives only*).
Oh, yes: do the same thing for Little Miss Attila. After all, she brought this issue to my attention.
Moe Lane
PS: Seriously, why Amazon didn’t hand out more Kindles to New Media folks…
*My current readers already got me a new audio rig for phone interviews. Which hopefully they feel that they’re getting their money’s worth on; I’m trying to get at least a couple in every week.
I have a Kindle, and have played with an iPad a bit, and honestly the problem with the iPad is it’s too darn big and heavy, for reading purposes. It’s basically twice the size and twice the weight of the Kindle. Kindle, 1-hand reading is no problem, iPad, big problem.
That’s one of the problems with general purpose devices. The larger screen? Great for web browsing. Great for multimedia. Not so great for laying on the couch and reading.
As for lock-in – right now the fight is over which DRM scheme to use, and whether the royalties go to Adobe or to Amazon, on it. If Amazon starts losing serious market share to the other guys, and starts losing business because of books that are exclusively non-Kindle, they could have a version update out in a matter of weeks or at most months that can read and display the other format. But my fervent wish is that neither DRM format wins, and you’ll be able to buy books from any store for any reader, just like you can buy MP3s from virtually any store, for any music player now.
But the publishers are trying to stay there, just like the recording industry tried to stay in a pre-1993 world with no MP3s until very recently.