SASCHA SEGAN
The Apple iPad Could Kill the Kindle
T
he new Amazon Kindle DX has a few weeks to live— and the magazine and news paper industries may not have much longer. As soon as Apple unleashes the rumored iPad, Ama zon’s attempt at hardware design will vanish quicker than Betamax. Amazon won’t mind, but magazine and newspaper publishers sure will. Apple and Amazon could be the best of enemies. Look at their complementary busi ness strategies. Amazon sells content. The company went into the hardware business to spur more ebook sales. It intends to make a killing selling etextbooks for the new Kindle DX. Sure, Amazon makes money on the Kin dle, but its heart is in the books. Apple sells hardware. Apple became the world’s lead ing online media store so it could sell more iPods. Its heart is in the iPods. Along Comes the iPad The Apple people usually go on about how much they hate a product category just
42 PC MAGAZINE DIGITAL EDITION JUNE 2009
before they enter it. Recently, Apple’s COO, Tim Cook, said he thinks netbooks are use less, and that the iPod touch is Apple’s net book. This feeds BusinessWeek’s rumor about the prospective “iPad”—a $699 tab let that would look like a bigger iPod touch. Apple hates netbooks because netbooks cannibalize notebooks. But the company would love to sell another Apple device. The iPad doesn’t replace anything Apple currently sells. You type on your laptop at your desk. You surf with your iPhone while on the go. But you’d relax with an iPad on the couch, prop it up by your bed, or rest it on the airplane tray table. That’s all stuff you do with existing devices, but an iPad would make it more natural, just as a Kindle does. A Closer Look at the Kindle The Kindle’s success doesn’t come from its brilliant hardware. Yes, the new Kindles are much prettier and slimmer than the origi nal Kindle, but they’re compelling because of their 3G networking and their tight inte gration with Amazon’s store. Apple has that
