Today Amazon announced they are bundling their Kindle app with some ASUS net books. It’s a logical move to expand the reach of the successful Kindle eco-system and another challenge for Apple’s iBookStore. So far iBooks is available on just one platform – the iPad. There isn’t even an iPhone app, never mind versions for Mac, Windows, BlackBerry or Android. It now looks increasingly unlikely that the iBookStore will be as successful as Apple hoped. Most iPad owners will be seduced by the better functionality of the Kindle Store, in particular the WhisperSync system that keeps all your devices and your books at the same page.
While I can verify that the iPad is an excellent book reader, it is not suitable for all occasions. For one thing, it is too heavy to carry around in your pocket all the time. For that, I continue to use my iPhone and I am quite happy reading Kindle books on the smaller screen. If I have my iPad with me, I will use it as the reader of choice, but the iPhone is a good second-best. The Kindle system remains the most convenient, even if we discount the vastly superior quantity of books in the Amazon store.