Quote:
Originally Posted by Goshzilla
Consumers could read books from their desktop, laptop, and hand held palm computers for ages, the fact that none of those devices were ever created for the purpose of reading means that people were buying them without any intention of reading a book. The iPad is the same situation, an all in one media device, that has its main appeal for video, music, and games. I doubt more than 5 percent of iPad owners are going to be doing serious reading over the life of the first version of the iPad. The iPad will not efficiently expand the ebook market because ebooks on an iPad have to compete with all the other forms of media.
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What you say is true, but there are a number of mitigating factors:
1. The iPad is much more suited for reading, in terms of form-factor, than any of the devices you list.
2. Apple are actively promoting it as a reading device. For example, the first time you connect to the Apple App Store with the iPad, it offers to install the "iBooks" application for you, which is an
extremely nice bookreader. Also the fact that you can buy and download books wirelessly from the iPad and get "instant gratification" is sure to be a factor, just as it is with Amazon's Kindle.
I think that the iPad will introduce e-reading to a large number of people who would not previously have encountered it. It really is a pretty good reading device.