iPad review

I bought the iPad while in the USA, partly because I liked the look of it, partly because I wanted to explore the option of changing my reading habits towards electronic media. I had heard from friends who have Kindle readers that the benefits are substantial, particularly for those who travel widely; my hope is that I will be able to avoid lugging books around when I go on my frequent trips to the USA.

The first thing to say is that buying books from the Apple iBooks store is very easy, particularly if you are already on iTunes. The visual appeal is brilliant, the books appear on a virtual shelf holding your personal library. The prices seem reasonable, slightly below what you might pay in a shop and many older books are offered free. My wife was delighted to be able to buy the complete works of Jane Austen for 49p.

However the breadth of selection is relatively poor, my searches for new titles and specific business books were not encouraging. It was then that an MTP colleague mentioned that there is an app which allows you to access all the books in the Amazon/Kindle library and this proved to be much more satisfactory; the selection is much wider even if the visual appeal is less sexy. And once you have downloaded your choice – which takes seconds – it is yours to carry around for ever without loading up your suitcase.

It takes some time to get used to holding the iPad rather than a book and reading in bed does not feel quite the same. However, once you get underway it feels fine, the page turning and bookmarks are excellent and you soon forget that it is anything different from normal. The one area where it seems to work less well is when you want to scan or browse a book as you might do in a bookshop; it is not possible to ‘flip through’ before you buy, though there are some useful brief descriptions of the content.

Reading outdoors has not proved to be a problem visually, though in very hot weather a warning appears telling you to take it back inside for a while. And there is also the multifunctional nature of the iPad, you can check your emails or access YouTube between chapters and then go back to your reading.

The final problem is that the engaging nature of the iPad means that other work colleagues and family members will start to play with it if you leave it lying around. This is a particular problem with children who seem unable to keep their hands off it. And the biggest surprise is that my wife – an avid reader of books – has become a complete convert to the iPad; perhaps it was the value of the Jane Austen purchase!

The result is that I am likely soon to need another iPad so that we can have ‘his’ and ‘hers’. This may seem extravagant but this experiment has convinced me that this is the way things are going. I am convinced that, over time, the impact will be the same as the iPod on CD sales; within ten years the book in paper form will be for a few traditionalists and everyone else will be using their latest iPad or Kindle.