OK “everyone” has had their say on the iPad, and the fuss is dying down it’s time for us introverts having had a chance to think ;) to start discussing the iPad and the future.

Let’s grant that (according to those who’ve seen and used them) iPads are great for all sorts of purposes, except reading in bed, or in day light areas.They also allow all sorts of Internet related and basic laptop activities to be performed. While the Kindle is what it is advertised as being a portable reader that can present a whole library and download more on demand.

Robert Graham summed up one difference display technology:

The devices have different trade-offs. The Kindles use “e-ink” technology that requires no power to maintain its state. Thus, the device wakes up to redraw the page, then goes back to sleep while you read it. This means it has fantastic battery life, going for a week between charges even under heavy use. The iPad, though, will only go 10 hours between charges. Because of the battery life, I’d rather travel with my Kindle than an iPad.

But there’s another difference, the use the two gadgets make of their network connection, till now Kindles basically use it to download books, while iPads use it for all the stuff iPhone fanatics rave about ;) BUT that’s changing and we are seeing (here’s a real surprise folks) convergence. As Gizmondo put it Kindle 2.5 Update Details: Kindle Gets Facebook After Your Grandparents Did:

Hey, kids… heard of this Facebook thing that’s been hitting the internet? Amazon did! And they’re integrating it, along with some newfangled Twitter whatnot, in their Kindle 2.5 software update—along with some other, less-belated goodies.

Now, the huge gulf of difference in display technology is likely to diminish, if not go away completely (LCDs are for TVs with mains power, e-paper is for reading and battery life, hence once it is fast and colourful enough for portable devices). Take the really networked nature of the iPad, mix in the really good for reading, go anywhere nature of the Kindle, and presto a device to use something like Googles ChromeOS and to make Microsoft very afraid!