If you are an Apple fan, the iPad is something of a dream-turned-reality for you. On the flipside, the launch of this new revolutionary tablet PC hasn’t marked a happy new year for Amazon’s. Here’s putting Apple’s iPad toe-to-toe against Amazon’s Kindle.

The Kindle DX may hand you a $10 save, when put against the lowest iPad model, but feature-wise, the iPad slays Amazon’s best offering. To start off with, the iPad too has a 9.7-inch screen much like the Kindle, but with far better resolution and colour diversity.

Also, the in-built keyboard on the lower half of the Kindle’s body actually adds to bulk and size. The iPad advantage avails an on-screen multi-touch keyboard, which not only saves space, but allows easier access and provides a neater appeal to the device.

The Kindle DX avails online subscription to books via SG connectivity. But 3G compatibility usually varies with regions and is not a good option for people travelling outside US territory. The iPad on the other hand comes with universal 802.11 Wi-Fi.

With a variety of multi-media entertainment options to choose from, including movies and music, the iPad makes the Kindle virtually look like a monotonous set of e-book. As a traveller, all you can do with Kindle is read, a benefit already availed by the iPad via iBookstore.

The Kindle books are fully compatible with the iPad, displayed in black and white albeit, just as in the case of an iPhone or iTouch. But then if you are an avid reader, you shouldn’t be bothered much about what Apple has to offer, since a standard Kindle is available at nearly half the cost of a low-end iPad.

Also, the battery life of the Kindle is much higher than that of the iPad, which supplies a mere 10-hour battery backup on multi-media mode and about 140 hours of music play.

The Kindle was meant to redefine book reading and stocking, a motive which it has carried out commendably. But the brains at Apple have seemingly given a whole new meaning to portable entertainment. Who knows? Maybe, next up would be iPad suitable multi-media versions of books, with moving graphics and audio perhaps.

You cannot really compare a media playing storage device to a modest e-book compiler. But then, a lot dependson the need and budget of the buyer. A bookworm with low budget would still turn to Amazon no matter how glittery the iPad seems.

But all-in-all, it wouldn’t be a bad prediction to say that the iPad might be the dawn of a new era, much like what we witnessed with the iPod. Although the Kindle may still be a reader’s delight, the iPad beats the tortoise in this race.