Apple last week launched its much hyped iPad tablet, selling approximately 300,000 units on the first day.  The company also announced that at least one book was downloaded within several hours of the purchase of each unit.  Several online blogs announced that the iPad would be the eReader market leader and called it the ‘Kindle Killer’.  The device may be cool (although I think it is a giant iPod Touch!) and should help people reduce the number of times they switch on their good ole’ PC or notebook for web browsing, the iPad is certainly not a ‘Kindle Killer’.  The technical reason for this is the iPad’s panel.  The iPad features a 9.7-inch IPS LED display versus the commonly used e-ink panel in most eReaders.  If you have not seen an eReader until now, an e-ink panel looks almost exactly the same as a printed page and has no backlight.  What this means is that the device does not produce any glare, allowing one to read even in bright sunlight and making the panel easy on their eyes.  However, unlike the backlit iPad, eReader users would still need to switch on their reading light if they were to read at night, which they would do anyway if they were reading an actual paper book.  The iPad also gains an upper-hand when it comes to reading color e-content.  e-ink panels currently lack support for color and only allow users to read in  black and white, thus not being the ideal choice for reading magazines.  The nascent e-ink technology also lacks the fast processing speed of the iPad.  However, companies are working towards developing much improved and faster e-ink panels and these disadvantages are expected to be minimalized by the end of the year.

Can you do this with the iPad?

Other than the lack of an e-ink panel, there are certain other attributes of the iPad that make it less comparable to eReaders.  The 24 ounce iPad weighs a good six ounces more than the 9.7-inch Kindle or twice as much as Sony’s Daily Edition.  This could lead to increased strain when reading for long hours, while holding the iPad with one hand.  At the time of the iPad’s launch, Steve Jobs announced that consumers could take a flight to Japan and use the iPad without recharging it, so an iPad’s battery would last approximately ten hours.  Now ten hours sounds great in comparison to a netbook or a laptop, but it is less impressive when compared to 2 weeks or 336 hours of battery life provided by most standard eReaders.

Most recent surveys also confirm that a majority of expected iPad owners are mainly going to use the device for mobile productivity purposes.  According to separate surveys from Comscore and ChangeWave Research, only 37 percent of people are going to read books on the iPad, while surveys from CNET and PriceGrabber.com put that number at an even lower 20 and 13 percent, respectively.  Although the 300,000 users who have already bought the device and others who are going to buy it will surely help drive e-content, the iPad is expected to be mainly used for web browsing, checking emails, and entertainment purposes.  With that said, the ‘cool factor’ associated with the Apple brand, the device’s multifunctional capabilities, and the company’s loyal core consumer base will continue to drive sales for the iPad, while taking some business away from dedicated eReaders.

As mentioned, the iPad offers far more capabilities than a standard eReader and certainly brings diversity to the eReader shelf, thus increasing competition in the still relatively uncompetitive market.  Although Amazon has yet to officially release sales figures for its Kindles, the e-commerce giant is estimated to hold a majority share of the eReader market, which is likely to go down in several months due to the imminent diversification of the market.  It is difficult to imagine that many consumers who own an iPad, including the 300,000 that purchased the device on Saturday, would also invest in a dedicated ebook reading device.  The iPad will likely appeal more to the tech savvy population, people looking to replace netbooks, and the magazine and news reading population, while the ‘Kindle’ will continue to be used by reading enthusiasts.  The iPad is the jack of all trades, being able to offer a little bit of everything to consumers, but the Kindles of the world are still the masters for ebook reading.  I can best relate this to the cricket world (for those not familiar with cricket, it is similar to American Baseball!).  Chris Cairns was the best all-rounder, but batting is still synonymous with Sachin Tendulkar.

Sachin 'Ton'dulkar