It’s hard to roll with the punches when a punch lands in a soft spot. We can’t argue at all with the advertisement from Amazon, or the premise for their argument. It’s bang on—the iPad is hard to read in direct sunlight. That being said, I spent a fair amount of time with my iPad outdoors this summer and I was only really annoyed on two occasions out of a couple dozen. The backlit iPad is going to act in the same way that a traditional computer monitor will, whereas the e-ink system for the Kindle is going to look the same no matter what the setting.
It’s not 100% clear that the device in question is an iPad, but it’s pretty obvious who Amazon is taking a pot-shot at in this advertisement.
But that’s where the technological advantages end mostly, and I’d still prefer an iPad over a Kindle. But, if I was a bigger reader I’d probably own both devices. They’re certainly both small enough to fit in a laptop bag.
Here’s the advertisement in question.
