The iPad has been announced. But does it mean Kindle will be dead? No, not at all. Remeber, iPad is still a multimedia device. You can do a lot of things including reading ebooks; but it’s not focused on reading ebooks. Those who prefer to read a lot of fiction, and text-only non-fiction still need a reader like kindle. However, iPad might be more acceptable for technical ebooks and e-textbooks. It’s for sure that young generations will prefer iPad to Kindle, and if the e-textbook market takes off through iPad it’ll be widely acceptable. If amazon can sell ebooks on iPad as they are doing with iPhone/iPodTouch, there is no reason to believe that amazon’s kindle store will be gone forever. Kindle as a reading device will still be there. However, I suspect the Kindle DX will no longer be a viable device, and it will be dead. Remeber, amazon has already tried to experiment with Kindle DX for universitites, and sadly, it failed. I think 6” kindle will still be sold, and it’ll evolve to different level as a reading device as technology evolves.
The iPad is basically a larger screen iPodTouch with tweaks here and there. It doesn’t have many more features than a iPodTouch except the integration of iWork. That basically make it a productivity device. In other words, it’s a multimedia and productivity device. On the other hand, Kindle has many unique features as a reading device that you never heard of. I think, as long as, amazon try to keep Kindle as a reading device with some social networking capability (not facebook, rather book-related) it’ll be alive for long. I would rather say, all other eInk devices other than Kindle will be dead pretty soon.
