Very interesting post on the L. A. Times blog. When the iPad came out, many people thought that would be the end of the Kindle. After all, why would anybody want to read in black and white when they could read in color? And have cool little animations when you turned the page?
Turns out people love the iPad, but also love the Kindle. It’s like comparing apples (no pun intended) and oranges. In fact, many households are reporting one spouse buying an iPad for surfing, e-mail, and movies, and the other spouse buying a Kindle for reading books, and then sharing the devices.
But what is surprising is that the sales of so many iPads is actually helping Amazon. The Kindle app is like a mini-store front on each iPad. Sure, many people buy books from iBooks, but a lot of people are buying them from Amazon as well. In fact, the article points out that the hard core readers, almost as many of them buy books from Amazon through the Kindle app as do books from iBooks. In other words, even if the iPad wins, and the Kindle goes the way of the dinosaur, Amazon may still win, or at least be a major player, in the e-book revolution.
