Amazon’s taken a leaf out of Apple’s advertising book (Mac vs PC, anyone?) by going head to head with the iPad maker in the most recent Kindle television ad. Most noticeably, the spot delivers a low blow to the iPad’s comparatively poor screen visibility in direct sunlight. As far as ads go it’s rather ingenious, taking some of the best tricks out of the old advertising, uh, book.
In short, a guy sunbathes in a gray t-shirt (geeky), but can’t quite read his “iPad” due to the sunlight. On the deck chair next to him lies a beautiful, bikini clad woman sunbathing while reading her Kindle with a pair of sunglasses on! The geeky guy asks the beautiful woman how she’s reading in the sunlight, she confidently responds by saying, “it’s a Kindle,” and points out that the Kindle cost less than her sunglasses did. The geeky guy is left the inadequate fool. Struggling to read further, he enviously looks over at the beautiful woman while she smirks and carries on reading her Kindle. As a guy, it’s pretty hard to watch that and not think, “I want that.” (I’m talking about the Kindle, aren’t you?)
Recently I had a conversation with a friend who has an iPhone and a MacBook Pro. He’s been in the market for an iPad for some time, but at the last minute he decided to go for the Kindle instead. A tad confused by his last minute change in direction, I asked him why. He noted to me that his iPhone does everything he needs it to do (web browsing, email, apps etc), so getting an iPad would only double up on what he’s already got. As for reading e-books, he continued, the Kindle is substantially cheaper and arguably easier to read.
I guess it’s horses for courses. I know I’d go for the iPad, but I have different needs / wants as to what my friend does.
Amazon’s new iteration of the Kindle was released earlier this month. Having seen the ad, and being that you’re likely a Mac fan since you’re reading this on TUAW, what would you go for? Let’s have our own little Kindle vs. iPad face-off poll.
P.S. Check out the parody response to the ad in the continuation of this post. Worth a watch!
TUAWKindle ad goes on the offensive against the iPad originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 21 Sep 2010 07:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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