Reply #67: It is like saying a high end boat and low end house are same price. [View All]

[Statistical]

The kindle and ipad are not in the same league.

eink is something you simple have to see. Once you get use to it the idea of reading on a backlight LCD seems downright primitive.

eink also allows vastly better battery life. Kindle lasts about 2 weeks when wireless is turned off (and there is no reason to turn on wireless except to purchase books).

Also the wireless is free.
They aren't in the same category.

The ipad is more like a netbook with a 3G card in it.

However amazon has huge markup on kindle. I saw a tear down article which indicates the components for Kindle is about $100 and the Kindle DX is about $160. Even adding 20% for labor, packaging, and shipping that is massive markup. Also eventually the kindle will be the razor and the books the razorblades. Amazon could give kindle away for cost and still make 30%+ of ebooks.

The good news is I hope the ipad will result in price drops on Kindle.
My guess is that Kindle sees a price drop after ipad launch. Likely to $199/$349. Another price drop in 6 months in time for Christmas to somewhere around $149/$299. Within a couple years we could see an improved "Kindle 3" at $99/$199 pricepoints.