Apple 'sells 1m iPads in a month'

[ttluisa]

I understand that iPod is a great little MP3 player(even mine froze to death on an itune update and never woke up), the imac does stand out with it's awkward but definitely cool OS, and the iPhone is such a nice little toy to play with on the go, I just can't see the greatness in that oversized iPod touch, aka iPad, that most people are so excited about. I'm sorry, I'm an iHater, but this is a personal issue that I have with mostly all the iProducts and all the iHypes. What I'm really trying to say here is, I don't think iBook will continuously generate impressive sales in the future like Amazon does.

iPad IS NOT a better E-READER than kindle, or nook, or sony. It's a device allows you to do some small jobs that you do not want to do in front of the computer(or, it allows you to do whatever it has to offer so you don't have to sit in front the computer when you only need to do those things), it's not designed with reading experience in mind. Sure it has color screen and that page flopping thing but so what? You still get eye strain and headache after a short period and that's not a pleasant experience at all. Not to mention the heavier weight and the other apps on it to distract you make continuous reading almost impossible.

I've also heard that most hardcore readers prefer E-ink screen devices to iPad, and PLEASE do believe me that most iPad owners are techie people and gadget freaks who don't do much long-time period reading and usually don't read over 10 books a year, and if they do, they will soon realize that, for book reading, E-ink beats iPad hands down!

So who's got a long shot in ebook industry?

[charleski]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Apple have said that the figure doesn't include the Winnie-the-Pooh book.

Do you have a source for that? There's nothing further on any of the usual Apple sites, and Apple was careful to use 'downloaded' rather than 'purchased'.
I still think 0.5m sales isn't bad considering that reading is very much a secondary function for this device. Would be interesting to see how that compares for sales to smartphones.

[Barcey]

It will be interesting to see if Amazon starts releasing sales volumes to respond to Apple's milestone announcements.

The best electronic reader for people is one they have with them and use. The ipad might not be my personal choice but I recognize it as a game changer and it's going to appeal to a much larger market then the dedicated e-ink readers.

[pdurrant]

http://paidcontent.org/article/419-a...g-off-shelves/

is the best I can come up with. Not directly from Apple, but quoting Apple. "Apple has said the figure doesn’t include the free Winnie-the-Pooh download offered with the app".

I'm sure that lots of the downloads were of free ebooks.

Originally Posted by charleski

Do you have a source for that? There's nothing further on any of the usual Apple sites, and Apple was careful to use 'downloaded' rather than 'purchased'.

[dmaul1114]

Originally Posted by ttluisa

Sure it has color screen and that page flopping thing but so what? You still get eye strain and headache after a short period and that's not a pleasant experience at all. Not to mention the heavier weight and the other apps on it to distract you make continuous reading almost impossible.

I've also heard that most hardcore readers prefer E-ink screen devices to iPad, and PLEASE do believe me that most iPad owners are techie people and gadget freaks who don't do much long-time period reading and usually don't read over 10 books a year, and if they do, they will soon realize that, for book reading, E-ink beats iPad hands down!

Better to speak just for yourself. I've never gotten a headache from reading on an LCD screen, and don't have a lot of eye strain problems.

E-ink is fine, I like my Kindle. But I have issues with reading on it at times as my place is pretty dimly lit and I like it that way--so LCD screens are often easier to read vs. fiddling with a clip on light with my Kindle etc.

Also, I spend a lot more time reading A4 PDFs of research articles than reading novels, and e-ink just sucks for research reading as it's just so damn slow to flip through documents looking for a table, quickly switch between documents etc.

The iPad doesn't quite get it right for an academic research tablet either--but not because of the screen (other than being a inch or so too small for my ideal needs). I'll definitely get an LCD tablet at some point, and probably ditch my Kindle at that point.

[Alexander Turcic]

Originally Posted by dmaul1114

E-ink is fine, I like my Kindle. But I have issues with reading on it at times as my place is pretty dimly lit and I like it that way--so LCD screens are often easier to read vs. fiddling with a clip on light with my Kindle etc.

One of the biggest problems with E Ink-based devices for me is that they are relatively slow in terms of processing power. Right now I am in the fortunate position to compare a Kindle DX with an Apple iPad side by side, and I cannot help but notice the stark contrast in speed when reading complicated PDF documents. With the Kindle, it always takes a moment when flipping pages, which makes it difficult if I have to browse through a document. With the iPad, page display is virtually instantaneous, making reading PDF documents faster even than on my dual core notebook.

[Rich_D]

I can see the need for an Ipad. I'd never want one - I have an aversion to all things Apple, but the niche is definitely there. I agree that most of their sales are due to people wanting what's new and shiny.