Amazon shareholders play with Kindles after the company’s annual meeting. (AP Photo)
Reuters | Target Corp affirmed Wednesday it would begin selling
Amazon.com Inc’s Kindle e-reader in all its stores starting on Sunday,
making it the first brick-and-mortar retailer to carry the top-selling
reading device.
Kindle, which wirelessly downloads books, magazines, newspapers, blogs and other documents to a high-resolution electronic paper display, retails for $259 and competes with Apple Inc’s iPad, as well as similar devices from Barnes & Noble Inc and Sony Corp.
“Our guest’s response to Kindle has been overwhelmingly positive,” Mark Schindele, Target senior vice president, said in a statement.
Target had previously told Reuters it would begin carrying the Kindle in all of its 1,740 stores on June 6.
I wouldn’t call Kindle an iPad competitor.
That’s great news. My friends who like my Kindle but weren’t interested in buying them online have another option now.
Why do they keep trying to compare a dedicated reading device like a Kindle to the iPad which is more like an expensive single-tasking laptop for people who might read a couple books a year? I wish they’d stop it. They aren’t the same. I spend 8 hrs a day on a computer at work. I don’t need to be reading on a backlit devise on my time off too. It is e-ink or nothing for me.
Check out the latest Consumer Reports which rates the Kindle a better e-reader than the i-Pad since it is lighter and has a better text resolution and it costs half as much or more than an i-Pad. Comparing these two devices is a bit of a reach since the i-Pad is attempting to be all things to all people, including laptop and e-reader but it doesn’t excel at any one of those functions. The i-Pad is beautiful to look at and has lots of whiz bang features for techies, though. Owning an inexpensive multi-function laptop and a Kindle works better for me.
Kindle is still priced too high. Why, oh why, do people try to compare Kindle II to the iPad. That is an apples vs. coconuts comparison. Compare the Kindle DX to the iPad. That comparison is more of an apple vs. orange – a bit closer to being a practical comparison.