Amazon Kindle 3 grabs attention despite many e-readers and Apple iPad in market

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By Elias Samuel: Subscribe to Elias's RSS feed

August 4, 2010 7:42 AM EDT

Latest development on third generation Amazon Kindle shows that the e-reader was a hit as it was sold out in less than a week.

After the price slash on the newest Kindle 3 model and with improved features, the e-reader device from Amazon has attracted the customers all over the globe.

Comparing the Kindle 3 with other e-readers in the market shows why the Kindle has caught everyone’s attention.

In our previous article (New Amazon Kindle 3 stands out against its earlier siblings) the comparison of all the Kindle e-readers generations was discussed in detail.

Otherwise, apart from Kindle 3, other e-readers available in the market with similar price range are: Barnes & Noble Nook, Sony Reader Touch Edition PRS-600, BeBook Neo, Kobo eReader, and even Apple iPad can chip in as an e-reader with extra features but it is a tablet PC.

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Amazon Kindle 3 offers a 6-inch display similar to Barnes & Noble Nook, Sony Reader Touch Edition PRS-600, BeBook Neo and Kobo eReader. The Apple iPad has a 9.7-inch display. But all the e-readers give a display resolution of 600x800 pixels except Apple iPad which gives 1024x768 pixels.

Sadly, apart from Amazon Kindle 3 and Kobo eReader, rest of them like Barnes & Noble Nook, Sony Reader Touch Edition PRS-600, BeBook Neo including Apple iPad feature a touch-screen. But all the e-readers include the e-link display.

When it comes to dimension Amazon Kindle 3 has a 7.5 x4.8x0.34 size compared to Barnes & Noble Nook’s 7.7 x 4.9 x 0.5, Sony Reader Touch Edition PRS-600’s 6.9 x 4.8 x 0.4, BeBook Neo’s 7.7 x 4.8 x 0.4, Kobo eReader’s 7.2 x 4.7 x 0.4 and Apple iPad’s 9.56x7.47x0.5 size.

The Amazon Kindle weighs 8.5 ounces for Wi-Fi/8.7 ounces for 3G+Wi-Fi whereas Barnes & Noble Nook weighs 12.1 ounces, Sony Reader Touch Edition PRS-600 weighs 10.1 ounces, BeBook Neo weighs 10.5 ounces, Kobo eReader weighs 8 ounces and Apple iPad weighs 24 ounces for Wi-Fi model and 25.6 ounces for Wi-Fi+3G model.

The Amazon Kindle 3 has an internal memory of 4GB compared to Barnes & Noble Nook’s 2GB, Sony Reader Touch Edition PRS-600’s 512 MB, BeBook Neo’s 512MB, Kobo eReader’s 1GB and Apple iPad’s 16GB, 32GB, or 64GB depending on the model.

And the recharge time of Kindle 3 is 4.5 hours whereas Barnes & Noble Nook charges in 3.5 hours, Sony Reader Touch Edition PRS-600 charges in 4 hours, BeBook Neo charges in 3 hours, Kobo eReader charges in 3 hours and Apple iPad with a powerful battery may charge within 2.5 hours.

The Kindle 3 supports audio formats such as Audible Enhanced (AA, AAX), MP3 whereas Barnes & Noble Nook and BeBook Neo supports only MP3. Sony Reader Touch Edition PRS-600 supports MP3, AAC and Kobo eReader supports MP3 and Ogg. And Apple iPad audio formats supported are HE-AAC (V1), AAC (16 to 320 Kbps), protected AAC (from iTunes Store), MP3 (16 to 320 Kbps), MP3 VBR, Audible (formats 2, 3, and 4), Apple Lossless, AIFF, and WAV.

The document formats supported by Kindle 3 include Kindle AZW, PDF, TXT, MOBI, and PRC. And Barnes & Noble Nook supports EPUB, PDB, PDF, BeBook Neo supports EPUB, DRM, PDF, TXT, HTML, RTF, MOBI, CHM, PDB, Sony Reader Touch Edition PRS-60 supports BBeB, PDF, Word, EPUB/ADEPT and Kobo eReader supports EPUB, PDF, Adobe DRM. And the Apple iPad viewable document supports include [doc and .docx (Microsoft Word); .htm and .html (web pages); key (Keynote); .numbers (Numbers); .pages (Pages); .pdf (Preview and Adobe Acrobat); .ppt and .pptx (Microsoft PowerPoint); .txt (text); .rtf (rich text format); .vcf (contact information); .xls and .xlsx (Microsoft Excel).

Only Amazon Kindle 3 along with Barnes & Noble Nook and iPad has 3G+Wi-Fi connectivity. Also Kindle 3 comes with Wi-Fi option and BeBook Neo supports Wi-Fi.

Kindle 3 has text to speech capability compared to other e-readers in the similar price range. And Apple iPad will read all EPUB books out loud. Also, the other e-readers capable of text to speech include Pandigital Novel and Astak 5" EZ Reader Pocket PRO in the market.

And the battery life of Kindle 3 is 3 weeks for Wi-Fi, 10 days for 3G+Wi-Fi, Barnes & Noble Nook close to 4 days, BeBook Neo close to 5 days and both Sony Reader Touch Edition PRS-600 and Kobo eReader have a battery life close to 5.5 days.

Also, Kindle 3 along with Barnes & Noble Nook, Sony Reader Touch Edition PRS-600 and Apple iPad has dedicated content service.

Now when it comes to price, the new Amazon Kindle 3 is priced at $189 for Wi-Fi+3G, $139 for Wi-Fi, Barnes & Noble Nook for $199, BeBook Neo for $299, Sony Reader Touch Edition PRS-600 for $169.72 and Kobo eReader for $149.

	Kindle 3	Barnes & Noble Nook	Sony Reader Touch Edition PRS-600	BeBook Neo	Kobo eReader	Apple iPad
Display	6-inch (600x800)	6-inch (600x800)	6-inch (600x800)	6-inch (600x800)	6-inch (600x800)	9.7-inch (1024x768)
Touch-screen	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes
Dimension	7.5 x4.8x0.34	7.7 x 4.9 x 0.5	6.9 x 4.8 x 0.4	7.7 x 4.8 x 0.4	7.2 x 4.7 x 0.4	9.56x7.47x0.5
Weight	8.5 ounces for Wi-Fi/8.7 ounces for 3G+Wi-Fi	12.1 ounces	10.1 ounces	10.5 ounces	8 ounces	24 ounces for Wi-Fi model and 25.6 ounces for Wi-Fi+3G model
Internal memory storage	4GB	2GB	512MB	512MB	1GB	16GB to 32GB flash drive, speculated 256MB RAM or 512MB RAM
Recharge Time	4.5hrs	3.5hrs	4hrs	3hrs	3hrs	2.5hrs
Audio formats	Audible Enhanced (AA, AAX), MP3	MP3	MP3, AAC	MP3	MP3 Ogg	HE-AAC (V1), AAC (16 to 320 Kbps), protected AAC (from iTunes Store), MP3 (16 to 320 Kbps), MP3 VBR, Audible (formats 2, 3, and 4), Apple Lossless, AIFF, and WAV.
Document formats	(AZW), PDF, TXT, MOBI, and PRC	(EPUB, PDB, PDF)	BBeB, PDF, Word, EPUB/ADEPT	EPUB, DRM, PDF, TXT, HTML, RTF, MOBI, CHM, PDB	EPUB, PDF, Adobe DRM	[doc and .docx (Microsoft Word); .htm and .html (web pages); key (Keynote); .numbers (Numbers); .pages (Pages); .pdf (Preview and Adobe Acrobat); .ppt and .pptx (Microsoft PowerPoint); .txt (text); .rtf (rich text format); .vcf (contact information); .xls and .xlsx (Microsoft Excel)
Wireless	3G+Wi-Fi	3G+Wi-Fi	No	Wi-Fi	No	3G+Wi-Fi
Text to Speech	Yes	No	No	No	No	Yes
Battery life	3 weeks for Wi-Fi/ 10 days for 3G+Wi-Fi	4 days	5.5 days	5 days	5.5 days	Specs Not available
Dedicated content service	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes
Price	$189 for Wi-Fi+3G/$139 for Wi-Fi	$199	$169.72	$299	$149	Starts from $499 to $829