I can imagine that many of you who are contemplating leaping into the world of ebooks are very confused by all the arguments and counter arguments out there as to the comparative virtues of ereaders or Tablets for reading ebooks with, and might appreciate a sort of comparison between the two gadgets for this specific purpose.  So I shall do my best here to give an unbiased look at the two systems.

The first thing you have to do though is to decide exactly what it is you wish to do with such a device.  As with any other tool, before deciding on which to buy you need to know what it is you want it for.

So to get us started, I shall give a quick rundown of what each type of device is good for:-

With a Tablet you can do the following, when you use it as an ereader.

• Read magazines which use a lot of colour.
• Read interactive ebooks.
• Read ebooks that use videos and sound.
• Read ebooks that have a lot of complex illustrations. Comics for example.
• Read Coffee Table ebooks.
• Read novels.
• Make notes and highlight parts of the text.
• Change the type and size of the letters on the page

With a dedicated ereader you may do the following.

• Read novels.
• Make notes and highlight the text.
• Change the type and size of the letters on the page.

You would be forgiven if you took from the above lists the inescapable conclusion that a Tablet is absolutely the better of the two types of device, but there is actually more to it when you really look at the two types of gadget.   As always there are other things to consider before making a decision.

I have listed the main benefits of a Tablet as an ereader, and happily ignored all their other abilities, since in reality a Tablet is actually nothing less than a highly portable computer, and is obviously capable of doing almost everything that you would normally do with a regular computer, and this of course is one of their main strengths.  As opposed to the humble – and much cheaper – dedicated ereader, which can really only be used to read novels and text based ebooks with, and not much more.  But it does do that relatively simple task perfectly.

An ereader is a device that is designed to do one thing only, and to do that one thing as well as the technology allows, whereas a tablet is a sort of universal tool, capable of doing many things very well, but perhaps slightly less well than a dedicated device can.

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A Tablet, or an ereader, how on earth to decide which is right for you?  I suspect that lots of you are totally confused by the competing claims of the supporters of the two types of device.    Both are claimed to be the last word in user friendliness and would seem to be exactly what you need to live a full and enjoyable life.

Well, this is obviously not the case, as they are in fact two totally different devices, designed for totally different uses too.

So, lets go back to basics here:

Tablets:

These are actually more or less computers in a different packaging.   Whether they are the ubiquitous iPad or one of the other makes, they all do much the same and have much the same possibilities as any other computer.   Actually the only real difference in reality between a tablet and any sort of “real” computer is the size and portability of the Tablet.  Here they are supreme, even a laptop or note book computer is too big to easily use whilst standing in a queue or on  a bus or whatever, but this can easily enough be done with any Tablet.

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E-Ink, the makers of the most used screen technology in the dedicated ereader world have produced a rather cheeky and funny video extolling the virtues of their screen system as compared to the back-lit screen used in (among others) the Apple iPad.

I was sent this video yesterday by the good folk at E-ink and once I had watched it I had to share it with you all here.   To be honest I loved this video, and also enjoyed the dig at the holy iPad and all other back-lit ereaders and Tablets.

In one funny video they manage to incorporate all that is good about E-ink screened ereaders and bad about the LCD type, and even worse, the iPad variety with all the distractions that they have.

So settle back and enjoy seeing how an ereader, such as the Kindle or Sony manages as compared to an iPad or any other Tablet…   A neat and amusing video that gives you enough information about the two systems to enable you to make up your own mind as to which system you would prefer as an ereader.

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Once again, the idea that tablets have replaced ereaders, is roaming the internet, with people saying that as you can do so much on any Tablet, why buy a one trick pony like an ereader?  Well, I feel that there is life in the old dog (sorry about the mixed metaphors) yet for a number of reasons, which I shall enumerate below.

Firstly though, lets have a quick look at tablets, be they iPads, Nexus’s (Nexii?)or Kindle Fires, essentially they are all the same gadget, merely differing in price and size.  As you know, with a tablet you can do anything (more or less) that you can do on any computer, check and write emails, watch films, word process, data base happily away, make use of endless Apps to carry out all manner of functions and work, and of course, with the appropriate Apps, you can also use them as ereaders.

Sounds good eh?  Well to a point it is good, very good in fact.   As a bit of 21st technology the advent of the tablet has revolutionized so many aspects of daily life for those rich enough to possess such a device – And we used to think a lap-top was the height of mobile computing.

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As a result of the predicted slow down in sales of dedicated ereaders  such as the Kindle and Sony this quarter (as opposed to tablets), it is being said that the time of the simple ereader is nearing its end, and that the future lies with the multifunctional tablet.

Not a view that I share:

As I have written in earlier posts on this particular topic, and what has led friends to accuse me of being a Luddite is that I believe firmly that to be pleasurable, reading is perhaps the one solitary activity we still have in the extremely noisy and distracting world we live in that has to be done in peace and quiet, with no distraction, a total immersion experience, which the multi-functional gadgets such as the Fire and iPad make impossible.

Tried it, but too many distractions.

I have tried reading on such gadgets, and found the endless pings and nudges they gave me, to inform me that I have a new email, or simply seeing (or knowing) that a click of the mouse will bring me to YouTube and some great video of a band I haven’t seen since 1972 really interfered with my pleasure in the ebooks I was reading on them.

When I sit down with either my Kindle or my Sony ereader, open the ebook I am reading at the time, and lose myself in the world the writer has created, with no outside distraction, I experience the true pleasure of reading.   I know, there are other distractions in the world than a machine telling you that an email has arrived…  Kids, friends, barking dogs to name but a few.  But these one can control by simply removing oneself from them.

An article in the New York Times quotes Allison Kutz, a 21-year-old senior at Elon University in North Carolina, who bought herself an iPad in 2010, who says her reading habits have never been the same since buying the iPad:

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In the first quarter of 2012 the world wide sales of ereaders is expected to only be about 2 million units, as opposed to the 9 million that were sold in the last quarter of 2011.  This is being heralded as an indication that people are moving massively over to tablets to read their ebooks on, rather than dedicated ereaders, such as the Sony or Kindle.

Missing the point:

I feel that this interpretation of the reason that ereader sales have shown a slow down – in comparison to the sales of tablets of one sort or another is rather missing the point or several points actually.

Firstly, the first quarter of the year is always a time of slow sales, people have spent all their spare money on Christmas gifts, and are not inclined to buy  much in the first few months of any new year.

Secondly, the advent of more tablets on the market, particularly much cheaper ones than the iPad, such as the Kindle Fire and the much sued Galaxy to name but two models, is still a real novelty for many people, and it has to be said that they are extremely useful devices for almost all computer based activities for people who are on the move a lot.

So, for my part I am not at all surprised to hear that ereader sales are down in comparison to the sales of tablets, and do not find this a discouraging phenomena for lovers of dedicated ereaders.

Multifunctionality is what many people want:

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