The iPad Vs the Kindle

With the launch of the Kindle HD 8.9 inch a lot of writers and bloggers immediately started to write all sorts of reviews and I have to say most were either hurried or not really well thought out. Basically, most did not give a fighting chance to the Kindle HD. True, the Kindle HD 8.9 might not be the better piece of hardware but at least it should be given a fair analysis.

I thought I had to write my own view until I read the article by David Gewirtz @davidgewirtz goo.gl/fb/uzaky   . I still think it is the most objective comparison I have read so far.  I will recommend it again and again.

But just to add, while we can’t rule out the advantage of the cheaper cost of the Kindle I did compare the screens of the two devices and found an interesting fact. I don’t think that the 8.9 inch screen size chosen by Amazon is a coincidence. While I am sure that its part of the trick Amazon is using to help in driving down its cost apart from using it as a differentiator.  I also found out that the 8.9 inch 16 by 9 screen has the same width as the height of the iPad while held in portrait mode or its width when held in landscape view.

This means that when the Kindle is held in landscape orientation to watch movies, and the iPad is also held in landscape, the size of a 16 by 9 HD movie will be the same. The difference will be the black borders the iPad will have at the top and bottom will not be visible on the Kindle or will be reduced.  This also means that using the Kindle HD in landscape (it is designed to be used this way anyway) will make the width of your content identical with that of the iPad.

So while it is easy to brush aside the size of the Kindle DX screen as smaller it actually works better for movies and may offer no considerable dis-advantage for other kinds of content you use the Kindle HD for . For one thing if you read a lot of pdfs or web browsing like I do all you will do will be more scrolling. The pdfs and the webpages will be the same width on either tablet.
So while the 9.7 inch iPad is the standard for now the Kindle HD 8.9 just might not be really far behind technically.

iPad and Kindle DX 8.9 Screen size comparisons - Landscape

iPad and Kindle DX 8.9 Screen size comparisons - Portraits to Landscape

Before Amazon Releases its Tablet

In the past few weeks a lot of rumours, claims and suggestions have been made about the upcoming Amazon tablet.  Everyone has shared what they think Amazon should or would do. Well over a year ago, I wrote a piece on my blog on why I believe Amazon should do an Android tablet, so I welcome this news with a lot of anticipation too. But with all of the rumours and suggestions I guess I should throw in my two cents too.

Everyone believes that it will be cheaper than the ipad. This has to be the case. It looks like this is really hard to do for other tablet manufacturers. The main reason for this is the cost of materials and manufacture for the other tablets is higher than that of the iPad, just check isupply.com.  The truth is most of the other tablets aspiring to beat the iPad have better hardware than the iPad and this increases their cost of production. If Amazon can take a loss and sell its hardware cheaper, well that might be a start. We all remember how the reduction of the cost of the HP TouchPad started a mad rush for it. But I have a question here: If anybody can sell a tablet at a loss and afford to make money from the buying of content it is Apple after selling millions of iPads. So why has the price of the ipad not been reduced by Apple?

There are rumours that it will be a 7 inch screen size. I think this will be a bad idea. It will only make the Amazon tablet look like a cheap attempt to compete with the iPad. Amazon already have 7 inch Kindles so I feel it makes sense to start with a large screen device first and maybe launch a smaller device later. I believe that part of the magic of the ipad is its size. It makes it easier to identify the iPad. It makes it easy to consume all kinds of media. It means you will do less zooming. Books and PDFs just look like the real thing. It’s a winning size.  Anything else will just be like, just there. If you don’t agree with me show me a 7 inch tablet selling like hot cake.

The Amazon tablet will have to be a visual wonder design wise, size wise. Or else it will be criticized so badly people won’t even want to try it out. Think about it:  part of the excitement about the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 is the fact that it’s the first of the Android tablets that is lighter than the iPad while throwing in some excellent hardware. No wonder Apple wants to kill it in the courts.  Then on the other side think of the Motorola Xoom while not necessarily a poor tablet, the poor design is shooting it in its foot.

And finally it should be more open. A micro SD card slot will not be a bad idea. Something that will allow getting media from the tablet out and getting stuff unto the tablet. Or at least it should show up as a storage device when connected to a computer, allowing access to its storage space. It should be able to access the Android Market, buy things from Amazon.com and be totally free so if a user never wants to browse Amazon.com there will be no issues.

Dream Hardware Department

With the explosions we have seen in the eBook reader and tablet scene and the explosion in the sales of the Apple iPad (3 Million in less than 90 days), I have been thinking with the many eBook readers and tablets being announced this year why not have a Microsoft tablet. Unfortunately Microsoft got the concept of the tablet wrong and has now pulled the plug on its Courier tablet. But let’s face it, with the release of the iPad Microsoft now has a chance to copy Apple like it has done in the past. To get into the eBook reader space why not makes a 9.7 inch Zune player! And then make it able to install light Windows applications. Imagine if I could install my VLC player or Win amp on the Zune and have other Windows applications. Then imagine this along with an app store!

On the other hand the Amazon Kindle is just way behind in terms of the current offerings and looses hands down when compared with the iPad excerpt off course with the fact that it has access to more books. I think the way forward for the Kindle will be to produce a colored touch screen version and license the Android operating system. I think this will empower the kindle; it will get an app store, an operating system that developers can develop for and media capabilities all in one sweep. This will at least give it a fighting chance against the iPad.

But then does Amazon want to compete? Amazon wants to sell books and Amazon just needs to have its Kindle app on Apple devices, on Android devices and the Blackberry OS and it will still sell books at maybe a cheaper rate then developing a hand held device. But I feel a company smart enough to develop a good enough tablet like the iPad and use the Android OS might be in place to reap the benefits similar to OEM manufacturers who make hardware and license the Windows operating system. Dell is already doing this with its Streak tablet and ICD with the Vega. Let’s face it: Android is here to stay. Statistics released in May shows Android phones outselling Apple phones in US for the first time (http://www.networkworld.com). So using Android might also be the start of a huge eco-system of Android powered devices that just might end up overcoming Apple and its devices. And competition in this space might just be good for the consumer ultimately.