gdgt

The problem for me is the eBooks app is actually kind of crappy, in my opinion.The Kindle app does a great job of hiding the interface while you actually read, rather than trying to emulate a physical book. I also occasionally pull up the Kindle app on my iPhone, and syncing across devices is critical.

My final thought is that most of what I read as eBooks are novels, and I am just not all that likely to go back to them, so if they should disappear years down the road, I will survive. If I really want to have it for reference, I probably want a physical copy. But that may just be me.

I have an iPad, and I'm finding I wish I also had a Kindle 2.

So how much do you want for it? :-)

I actually think it's pretty simple, if you don't mind having books in multiple apps - just buy it wherever it is cheapest. In cases where they cost the same, use iBooks. I still find that the B&N and Kindle stores have way more books then iBooks does, so it comes down to one of those two anyway.

The iPad can let you read books from all three stores, and if you have all three apps on your device, then you pretty much don't need to "switch" away from one to the other - you have them all there. It's just a matter of which app you tap when you wanna read something ;)

I'm with you on the ePub format vs. AZW format; However, while I use my iPad for reading more than my Kindle because of its ability to easily browse the web (and native Instapaper client), I still much prefer long form reading on the Kindle due to its screen.

I plan to keep buying books on the Kindle, and just hope they eventually switch to the ePub format.

I just love Kindle app for being able to put down the iPad, head out the door and pick up reading a few pages on my iPhone. I probably read about 3/4 on the pad, and 1/4 on the phone of my last book.

As mentioned on the gdgt iPad roundtable a few weeks back, I dumped my Kindle hardware a day after I got my iPad. But I've never really questioned any content moves towards iBooks and I'm sticking with Kindle. ePub support is nice, but DRM-wrapped ePub doesn't make the content any more portable. With Kindle clients for all of my devices (sans Android, but coming soon), I've decided to keep building my Kindle library and forego iBooks altogether at this point. There's just no compelling reason for me to do otherwise, but of course, your mileage may vary. ;)

Does the Kindle app on the iPad have a quick interface to the brightness control like the iBooks app?

The main reason I still buy books from the Kindle store vs iBooks is because I know I can read those books on several different devices and stay in sync between them. If I'm going to be reading outside I'll grab the kindle. Maybe later on I'll be standing in line with my iPhone and I'll read a few pages there. Then at night I may read a few chapters on my iPad before bed.

I also own a nexus one and soon I'll be able to read kindle books with it as well. Amazon seems to be taking the Netflix approach with having their content work on as many platforms as possible. I wouldn't be overly concerned with the format it's stored in. As you mentioned, even though iBooks uses ePub, it's still DRM protected.

More to the topic at hand: I started buying Kindle books as soon as the iPad arrived at my house. While I know that iBooks is coming to the iPhone with the next update, the fact that Kindle was already on both was a huge factor for me. I bought a book from iBooks just to see how I liked it, and I found that the added chrome of the interface was more distracting than it was a helpful visual metaphor.

I actually had a handful of books from BN's ebookstore, but they only just today launched the ipad version of it. While I know the early adopter isn't necessarily comparable to the general public, this delay pissed me off and caused me to abandon them as an ebook seller. Also, the fact that I get triple rewards points on amazon purchases also factors into my decision.

The ePub thing, to me, seems like it doesn't entirely matter. iBooks epub won't work outside of iBooks. BN's epub worked in Stanza, but amazon seems to be letting stanza die slowly. I had high hopes that BN's epub would work in iBooks, but as of this writing it does not.

But will Apple eventually boot B&N and Amazons ereader app for competing with a core function?

I'm still doing most of my reading on my Kindle at the moment. However, I have been using my iPad for it from time to time, though in the Kindle app (I'm too attached to my Kindle library, and I enjoy reading my books across multiple platforms). If you're wanting to switch to ePub, you may want to consider using the B&N iPad app, which just launched. They use ePub, just like iBooks. However, like Amazon, they have cross-platform support for their content, which iBooks currently lacks. B&N and Amazon also have much larger libraries than iBooks at the moment.

My wife has a Kindle 2 and so I just decided to stick with Kindle for iPad. So far I don't mind it at all. Very convenient to have all the books in one app, and as a bonus she can read on the iPad if she doesn't have the Kindle around. The availability of Kindle on PC/Mac/iPhone/iPad/BlackBerry was definitively a factor here, as we can read on many platforms we regularly use.

Hah. I was in the same position, i.e., not doing the reading on my Sony Reader anymore, and decided on iBooks. Why? Because I had iTunes store credit that was originally meant for apps and then I realized "Hey, I can use this for books, too!" (Makes iTunes gift cards quite a powerful thing, no?)

I probably would have chosen Kindle if they supported in-app purchases, but I can understand why they won't/can't. I think the cloud-based sync is a good enough reason to stick with Kindle. There's no reason they couldn't support this with iBooks by the time the iPhone version appears, but Apple has a bad track record for that kind of use case -- it always requires that USB sync on the desktop.

If you think you might be bouncing between iPad and Kindle 2... or even iPad and iPhone... right now Kindle would be the easier solution. I don't have a Kindle reader, but I do have a Mac media server HTPC setup, so it was an easy choice for me.

I'm in the same situation, I just finished the book that I was reading and was torn between buying something on the iBook store or from Amazon. I went with Amazon because the value of being able to read it on the Kindle, iPad, iPhone and computer made the DRM worth it. When iBooks comes to the iPhone and if Apple writes a desktop app it might be a tougher choice for me but for now I'm sticking with the Kindle app for iPad as my primary reader.

I am still using my nook as my primary reading device. While the iPad is good for Internet reading, I find that for long stretches, I still prefer my nook. Lighter, easier to read on, and more cozy to hold. Besides, just wait till you need to read that book in the sunlight, and you'll be screaming for your kindle. Just my humble opinion. Now if they could sync my last page read between the nook and the B&N app I would be a truly happy camper.