Of late, I get asked quite a lot whether someone should buy an iPad or a Kindle. I’ve been struggling to come up with a really good analogy with other tech for these devices, and have usually gone down the ‘if you read a lot of books, get a Kindle, otherwise get an iPad’ route. This doesn’t always work well, because people then start rattling on about web access and games, and if I tell them to ‘go and get both devices then’, they yell “do you think I’m made of money?” before throwing spoons at me and storming off in a huff.

Over the weekend, it struck me that there’s a better, faster analogy out there: the Kindle is a television. Bear with me on this one.

The point here is that people still watch televisions, due to the user-experience. They have PCs, on which they can easily enough watch TV, but doing so is pretty hateful. Even if you’ve a shiny new 27″ iMac in your living room, it’s going to offer a worse TV experience than a far cheaper flatscreen TV, because the TV is designed for watching TV, and that’s something people do a lot of.

The Kindle is the same. People enjoy reading books on it, due to the user-experience. On a tablet PC, you can easily enough read a book, but doing so is pretty hateful. Even if you’ve a shiny new iPad in your living room, it’s going to offer a worse long-format reading experience than a far cheaper Kindle, because the Kindle is designed for reading books, and that’s something… well, that’s something some people do a lot of.

Of course, television manufacturers are rapidly trying to screw up my analogy by welding ‘apps’ to their flatscreens—the bastards; but I figure I’ve a few months left yet before I have to think of something else, other than walking about the place wearing a ‘Look, just buy whatever the fuck you want’ T-shirt.