books

I had written this post about iPad –

iPad could/would beat Kindle, Nook & other eBook readers

– and one of the readers completely disagreed with me. I read his comment and thought about a response and I started typing the response on my N97, my comment was so big and the conversation so interesting that it qualifies as a new post.

 His comment is below -

No disrespect, but are you serious about your final statement?  I’d love to test the iPad to evaluate it, but as I see it it is FAR from the best e-book reader around.
Why?
1.  Back-lit LCD screen = eyestrain after any sustained reading time.
2.  Size.  Sorry.  iPad is just too big for casual reading.  Kindle/Nook/Sony all have about the right size.
3.  Battery Life.  Most e-book readers are measured in Page Turns, most are somewhere in the range of 7K page turns.  I run my Kindle on airplanes for 13+ hour flights without a single worry of significant usage of the battery and follow that flight up with 7+ days of heavy usage before taking ANOTHER 13+ hour flight home.  All on the same charge.
4.  Cost.  Nuff said on that one.
Like my iPhone, the iPad is a great gadget, but it (in my opinion) it remains far from an ideal platform for eBooks, Kindle app or no Kindle app.
For the record, my iPhone has the Kindle app, and Stanza on it, and while I DO read books on my iPhone if I’m stuck someplace without my Kindle, I would never choose to read on it over the kindle (despite the finger swipe page turns).
Oh.  And if I wanted a tablet, I wouldn’t need a book reader app to justify it.  I didn’t buy my kindle to surf the web, or send e-mails or act as a doorstop, I bought it to read books.  Saying (while reviewing the iPad as a book reader) that…don’t forget the iPad can look at video, play music, etc, is completely irrelevant.
To me, its’ akin to saying the latest (insert author here) Hardback book you just bought, an also act as a doorstop, monitor stand, weapon, or firestarter, so it MUST be better than a dedicated e-reader.
Meh.
And yes, I’m a bookworm too.

And for that I responded –

Nice argument and I totally agree with you. E-ink is better than backlit screens. And to be perfectly honest with you I have not tried any of them. These eBook readers and the iPad is not available here. I read books on my N97 using the ereader app. My conclusions are based on user reactions and analysis of data about the iPad and other eBook readers. Most of the people who reviewed the iPad were saying it’s better than kindle, Nook etc. Only a few blogs were against iPad.
I’m not an Apple fanboy, I own an Nokia N97 and my operating system is Windows 7, my point is I’m not some crazy guy who is in love with the iPad.
The number of casual readers are more than bookworms like us. They read a book for 1 or 2 hours a day. They would be looking for a more complete package than just an eBook reader, some of them might already have an iPad so they don’t bother with another eBook reader.
EBooks are the current trend. We people decide they need an eBook reader, their thought process is –(- hey…in iPad I can play games, watch videos and surf internet other than reading books, in kindle I cannot do these stuff, so I’ll buy an iPad. –)–

iPad is not the best eBook reader but it is the one which will attract more people.

– - – - What are your views on this matter?  – - – -