Kindle Fire vs iPad: How to decide | TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog:
My knee jerk response when it comes to the iPad is this: if you don’t have one and you don’t know why you need one, just go and buy one. In a couple of weeks, you’ll know why this is the best mobile device in your life ever. (You’ll want to pick up an iPhone a few weeks after that. The iPad is a gateway drug.)
As far as I am concerned, the jury is out on the Kindle Fire. I’ve read some positive reviews and lots of negative comments. An iPad, even a 7in iPad, it is not. What it is, is a slightly flawed window on Amazon’s world of books and bargains. If that’s all you need, you will be happy. But before rushing out on impulse to charge that $199 to your card, ponder on the longer term. Are you buying into a cul-de-sac or do you want to expand your horizons?
Erica Sadun’s quote above is spot on. People who decry the iPad (or iPhone, for that matter) have probably never used one. A couple of weeks, as she says, is all it takes to get completely hooked on Apple’s particular gateway to the world which differs in so many ways from Amazon’s take.