The iPad is a runaway success – with one exception.  We haven’t heard many raves about its virtues as an e-book reader.  Which is kind of ironic given the Messianic expectations for it as a Kindle-killer before its release.

Kassia Krozser has a problem with the shmutzik touchscreen: “To say it shows every fingerprint is an understatement. It’s a touch device; the surface is one big fingerprint, meaning there will be lots of cleaning of screens in your future.” Technology writer David Pogue thought it was too heavy (one and a half pounds versus 10 ounces for the Kindle) and the screen hard to read in strong sunlight. (See David Pogue Digs the iPad (with an Asterisk.) Mike Shatzkin found the selection of book titles in the iLibrary skimpy.  He also had this to say:

As a straight ereading device, it just doesn’t cut it for me. The extra weight (over a Kindle or an iPhone) just isn’t sufficient compensation for the extra screen capability. It isn’t as good as the iPhone for reading in bed in the dark because the much more light it throws off makes it harder to avoid annoying your significant other. It took me a while to find it, but the lock that allows you to lie on your side and have the type lie in its side with you is managed by a button on the device itself, not a setting in the ereader platform, which is how Kindle and Kobo do it on the iPhone.

Jason Perlow actually did some informal “market research” comparing Kindle, Sony, iPad and other e-reader screens in a Tech Broiler blog entitled iPad vs. Kindle: Who’s the Better eReader?. Mr. Perlow might have done some market research on pronouns but we’ll let that go in view of some interesting results, some which match up with the anecdotal comments we’ve reported here.  To visit his “testing gallery” including photos click here.

For many would-be e-book readers iPad’s size is an awkward hybrid of pocket-size cell phone and full-size laptop, making it a challenge to carry.  Kassia Krozser says she foresees “serious movement into man purses,” but Mike Shatzkin says “Good luck with that one.”

Despite Shatzkin’s shuddering rejection of a manbag for his iPad, there is already a thriving trade in iPad-specific shoulder bags, many of them virile enough for any guy fearful of being teased. If you’ve made your peace with this issue and accept the tradeoff between walking around with a purse and shattering your five or six hundred dollar device on the marble floor of Grand Central Station, you can get some handsome carriers for the iPad.  And not a few of them are offered on the website of Apple’s nemesis – Amazon.com.

Richard Curtis