The suspense is over.Yesterday,Steve Jobs unveiled the Apple's tablet computer aptly called 'iPad'.Being an avid reader,what got my interest more than anything was the 'iBooks' application.Here are some of the feature of iBooks:
- iTune like online bookstore -"It looks like a bookshelf and there's a button to....iBook store to discover,purchase and download e-books right on your iPad".Currently five publishing houses are present on iBook store and according to Jobs - "it will open the floodgates for other publishers starting this afternoon".
- Pages can be changed at the top of screen,or by using gestures to move the pages naturally.
- Features include browsing table of contents and customizing fonts.
- An optional plug-in keyboard for those who write,as well as read.
Apple's iPad vs Amazon's Kindle.
- Kindle is just for reading entertainment whereas iPad is apparently more than that.It is for watching, listening, gaming, browsing, sharing photos, and communicating with friends & family.I think in time Kindle will have to be more than an eReader to survive in the market.
- For the same price, more is better.Consumers will prefer a multi-purpose entertainment tablet over a single-purpose reading device as their prices match.Currently,Kindle costs nearly half the price,starting at $260 versus $500 for the iPad.But,What will happen when price of iPad reduces?And that is going to happen in near future because Apple's revenue will come from different other streams -music,movies,games,apps,advertising,and more.-giving them the margin to reduce the iPad price.
- From publishing point of view,iBook is using the open EPub format,whereas Kindle's format is proprietary.Anyone with requisite technological know-how can make an EPub version of their own book.Smaller publishers,if allowed,will be able to get in the game relatively easily.
what could you do if you ran Kindle?
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