These days everybody is praising iPad. I could do that too – and probably will. But let me first describe how Kindle was my perfect holiday companion this Easter.
This Easter my family spent five days in Barcelona in Spain. It was a great vacation for everybody, with beautiful attractions, cosy restaurants, a lot of laughing and many nice experiences.
And quite a few hours of reading.
I love to read. Crime, dramas, magazines, newspapers … And when I go on vacation I have more time to read than normal. Typically I will read 2-3 novels during a week of vacation.
Before I always had to prepare my vacations carefully. I would drop by the book store in Oslo and select a few books I would like to read. And the books would certainly challenge weight limitations in my luggage.
Not anymore.
I now got my Kindle. This time I spent about 10 minutes at Amazon‘s web site a few hours before leaving – picking two books I found interesting. One-click-buy - and they were safely distributed to my e-reader.
On my Kindle I already had my paid daily subscription to the Asia edition of International Herald Tribune. You may ask why I pay for that. Couldn’t I find the same articles on the web for free? Yes, I could. But, you see, in my daily routine I have a free half hour slot as I take the train home from work. That is the 30 minutes I have for International Herald Tribune – and Kindle is able to provide Unique Convenience by offering me that content in that particular situation.
Back to my vacation in Barcelona. How did I use my Kindle?
- I read crime novels on the plane going back and forth
- I read for hours in Barcelona. The weather was nice – and usually I was sitting in the sun light on our roof top terrace or in a cafe.
- My Kindle was always in my backpack – and I would take it out when I had a few minutes available.
- I kept track of the major international news by reading the International Herald Tribune.
I was never online during this vacation. Why not? Well, there was no wireless network in our apartment. I could have used my mobile phone to surf on the 3G, but I was of course worried about the costs. Internet cafes? No, this was family time! No room for daddy so sneak away for a web cafe 
But my Kindle delivered. I read hundreds of pages, let myself be drawn into the most compelling stories, kept track of the news. And it was all so easy and convenient.
I hear you asking: Couldn’t I have done all this on iPad?
I don’t think so. And in any case it would not have served my purpose as well.
Here is why:
- iPad is build around connectivity to the web. This vacation I did not have connection easily available.
- The e-ink screen of Kindle is far superior to any LCD screen when it comes to reading text. You can read for hours without experiencing any eye strain. Especially this is true when you are outdoor. I don’t know about you, but for me I tend to spend as much time as possible in the sun when I am on vacation. In that situation a reflective screen as what iPad has is bad. E-ink is great, providing a reading quality on the same level as paper.
- The battery lasts forever. This is so nice on a vacation, when you tend to forget to charge all your gadgets. At least I do
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- Buying a new book was done in a couple of minutes - from my bed. No need to be connected to the web. No need to worry about 3G connection charges – it is all a part of what you pay for the book.
- My newspaper subscription was delivered to me automatically.
- Kindle seems durable – and I had no worries about throwing it in the backpack as I went around exploring Barcelona. I have a feeling I would be more worried about an iPad.
Many will of course point out that Kindle is only in black and white and does not offer any of the rich multimedia experiences of iPad. It doesn’t even have any kind of graphic presentation of the content. And that is true indeed. But still it served my purpose excellently – and proved a valuable companion on my travel.
Am I saying Kindle is better than iPad?
No, I am not.
It all depends on your specific needs.
In fact I don’t think you can compare the two. In my opinion they are really not in the same marked, as I have blogged about before. Kindle is for reading text. For that particular purpose it offers a few very unique advantages. iPad is much more a multimedia web surfing tool designed to be used in your living room. But while iPad may be great in your home, it may not necessarily work as well on vacation. And for book lovers Kindle may still be a preferred device, in particular because of the superior screen quality.
Do not misunderstand me. I am very enthusiastic about iPad and similar tablet products that will be launched in the months to come. I think these tablets offer great opportunities both for consumers and content providers. But let us not forget that user situations and needs are very different. It is not like iPad will solve any challenge users have – and in some particular situations, like vacations, it might just be inferior.
At least for me personally Kindle was a perfect travel companion this time – despite its technical limitations. And I suspect it will stay like that.
But I will probably get an iPad as well! For my home!