What Steve Jobs claims to “stand on the shoulders” of all competition including Amazon’s Kindle, is marking its territory fast in the gadget jungle, and is called the iPad.

Experts and critics alike have placed the iPad in a direct head-to-head fight against the Kindle, highlighting its multi-purpose properties and utilities plus the additional e-reader supplement to be its key strengths.

iPad fanatics have already paid eulogies to the Kindle, pointing since the versatile iPad has so much more to it – including games, pictures, music, movies, internet and e-books – that it actually poses a major threat to Amazon’s e-book reader.

The cause of the hype is also be attributed much to the suave and sleek looks of Apple’s new product, with a sharp 9.7 inch LCD screen that supports a resolution of 1024 x 768 pixels and a fully software-enabled touch-screen keyboard to go along with it.

Some critics agree otherwise, saying that the key stand-point of the subtle Kindle is that it acts as an effective e-reader for that avid bookworm who simply wants to cut out all the fancy and enjoy a good, calm reading experience.

When it comes to price, the Kindle’s purchase seems a bit illogical at a whopping $489, when one could get a device, the iPad that is, which could do a whole lot more than a basic e-reader at just $10 extra.

But on the flipside, experts believe that since the collision between the two gadget goliaths is a long term issue, most people would rather base their pickings on needs than price tags.

Although the latest Kindle DX may cost nearly as much as the iPad, the refurbished original Kindle is still available at prices as low as $260 in select outlets on demand.

The refurbished Kindle may support poorer black and white text-only displays, but then Amazon is planning improvements soon. Also, at $13.99, the iBookstore subscriptions seem a bit bratty compared to the reasonable $9.99 per subscription offering of Amazon.

So, at the end of the day, it all depends on the segment the buyer and his needs belong to. The iPad is a priceless possession for a media-buff or a frequent traveller. But then when it comes to good old e-book reading, the Kindle is bound to be his perfect pal.

To add to it the budget, a person who needs a good dose of data storage but has a low budget, should go for the original version Kindle to build up a library-like e-book collection. In contrast, if he has a $500 bill to spend, the iPad is the pick of the season.