Will the iPad kill the kindle?

Negative...

Will it inspire a whole new generation of Jean Luc Picard wannabe's sitting at their desk reading the day's staffing reports in the sanitary department or sneaking a peak at Beverly through the comm system?

Most certainly.

While Book people are creative, and (generally, with understood exceptions) love Apple, they are still Book people- they love books, the feel of them, the look of them, touching the pages.

Steve Jobs will have none of this wasted sentimentality.

The Kindle is not a great product. Basically, Steve Jobs made it look like a circa 1993 piece of white computer plastic. But it has some key advantages that I am sure Bezos and company will be screaming over the next few weeks. iPad, 10 hours of battery like- kindle, a week. iPad, computer screens suck in sunlight- Kindle, park under a tree on a beutiful spring day and lose yourself. iPad, while a wonderful deal at $499, Kindle, at $259, much more in reach of the average reader. But, single most importantly, iPad data plan, $15 or $30 a month for 3g access- Kindle, Wireless is free.

I am an Apple guy, don't get me wrong, but the iPad is not about to kill the Kindle.

Oh, and there's another thing:

Content- Exclusive Content will be king, and book makers, when faced with choosing between the two entities- Amazon, whom they have been dealing with for years, or Apple, whom they have watched basically dictate terms to both the Movie and Music industries, will be more likely to go with the familiar...