Seventy-four percent of survey respondents said they were “Very Satisfied” with the iPad in an earlier November survey, while only 54 percent said they were “Very Satisfied” with the Kindle Fire in the January survey. The average of Very Satisfied customers for all other tablet devices combined was 49 percent. Why the 20-point gap between the iPad and Fire? It came down to what many users seemed to feel were missing features, according to ChangeWave.

The major dislikes that survey respondents listed for the Kindle Fire included the lack of a hardware volume button, the absence of a camera, short battery life, a lack of cellular connectivity and the size of the Fire’s app library. Cost and screen were favorite features among Kindle Fire owners.

Apple’s focus on user experience seems clearly to be better at winning the admiration of users post-purchase, while Amazon’s focus on offering a low-cost device seems to ultimately leave customers feeling like there’s something missing. That strategy appears to have worked well in the short term. One analyst said earlier this week that Amazon may have shipped as many as 6 million Fires during the last quarter of 2011. But long-term, Apple may have been right when it suggested in December that strong Kindle tablet sales might eventually help boost iPad demand.

Consider that the features tablet users indicated a desire for in expressing their dissatisfaction with the Kindle Fire are all features the iPad currently offers; there’s a clear path of where to get what they want out of a tablet already in place. And if Apple does decide to keep the iPad 2 around as a lower-cost offering when it unveils the iPad 3, the Fire’s No. 1 selling feature won’t seem nearly as much of a marked advantage.

On the flip side, Amazon could also address those deficiencies in future iterations of the Kindle Fire, should it find cost-effective ways of doing so. But Apple will continue to push the experiential envelope at the same time, and so far whatever it provides seems to set the standard in terms of tablet buyer expectations. Pleased customers are loyal customers — as ChangeWave says, it’s found that satisfaction is highly linked to future sales, so Apple’s big lead here is definitely a key measure of success.

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With Apple’s more than 15 million iPads shipped during the quarter, the worldwide PC market grew 16 percent year over year. Not counting tablets, of which the iPad is easily the most successful, the PC market actually shrank by 0.4 percent worldwide when compared to the same period a year ago, according to the Canalys data.

Apple’s success both with the iPad and its Mac computers allowed it to take top honors for the quarter, knocking HP to second place overall. Canalys says the lack of a valid HP tablet competitor, now that the TouchPad is shelved, will mean that HP will continue to struggle against Apple’s success.

The iPad wasn’t the only tablet to do well during the quarter, however. Canalys says that the Amazon Kindle Fire and Nook Tablet also helped contribute to the success of tablets in the U.S. Amazon ranked as the second strongest tablet manufacturer worldwide, while Barnes & Noble took the fourth place spot.

All told, iPads accounted for 22 percent of all worldwide PC shipments in the fourth quarter of 2011, as measured by Canalys. It’ll be interesting to see what effect a new iPad launch in the coming months might have on the worldwide momentum of tablets, and the larger PC industry.

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Apple CEO Tim Cook said during his company’s recent earnings call that iPad sales haven’t really been affected by the Amazon Kindle Fire, which is no doubt contributing heavily to the success of Android tablets. It’s also likely the Barnes & Noble Nook Color and Nook Tablet are included in the Android figures. Instead, Cook admitted the iPad has had some cannibalization effect on sales of Macs, and he predicted that one day, the tablet market will be larger in volume than the PC market.

Compared to Android, Apple still has a dominant position in the tablet market, with a 57.6-percent share compared to Android’s 39.1 percent, according to Strategy Analytics’ most recent numbers. In terms of year-over-year growth, the tablet space has grown by 150 percent between the end of 2010 and 2011. In other words, even if shares were more evenly split, the iPad would still be seeing big gains in unit sales.

The PC market, on the other hand, contracted by around six percent in the fourth quarter of 2011, according to research firm Gartner. That’s despite 20 percent growth by Apple’s own Mac line of computers. Kevin Tofel recently pointed out here on GigaOM that half of computing device sales are now mobile. If the trend of growing tablet and smartphone sales continue, and PC sales continue to decline, we’ll soon be in a position where mobiles are considered a primary device by the majority of users.

Apple will continue to sell iPads. A new refresh expected in the coming months might even help it turn the tide of slipping market share, since while the low-cost Kindle Fire may be a success, other Android tablet makers still seem to be having a hard time putting out a product consumers can get genuinely excited about. Kevin wrote last week about how Android 4.0, while it improves the Android tablet experience, still has a lot of glaring pain points. Also, Android’s tablet-specific app library lags considerably behind Apple’s, and isn’t catching up anywhere near as fast as the market on the smartphone side.

The companies putting out Android tablets that fail to achieve the Kindle Fire’s level of success are the same ones being hurt by the slowing PC market, and they’re the ones that stand to lose the most. Amazon’s Kindle fire has reportedly sold as many as 6 million units through the end of 2011, according to estimates, which would make it the world’s best-selling Android tablet.

Apple continues to appeal to a steadily growing audience of tablet users, but Amazon is answering the call of those who were happier buying bargain-priced netbooks for their basic computing needs, rather than spending more on an iPad. That’s the market PC makers should have been trying to retain with their own tablet efforts, and also the one Amazon has positioned itself best to appeal to.

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Here’s why Wu says he thinks the iPad will continue to be a hot-seller in 2012:

We believe this significant refresh will likely help drive higher iPad sales and help further differentiate from arguably the only real competitor in the market, Amazon’s Kindle Fire, and not to mention the myriad of Android offerings out there. We are currently modeling 48 million iPad shipments for calendar 2012.

DisplaySearch has already said it estimates 48 million iPad display panels were shipped in 2011. Now, display shipments doesn’t necessarily equal iPad shipments (owing to repairs, replacements, defective stock, etc.) but Apple’s own reported numbers put its iPad sales for its financial year in 2011 at around 32.4 million. An increase of 16 million would certainly be in line with the iPad’s sales growth between 2010, when it sold 14.8 million worldwide, and 2011, but if Apple’s quarterly sales continue to gain steam the way they did in 2011, we could indeed see much bigger increases, especially if the iPad 2 remains available as a low-cost option.

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Between 2010 — when the iPad was introduced — and 2011, Apple iPad shipments soared from 17 million to the estimated 48 million mentioned above. That’s an increase of 182 percent, but the situation was completely different: Apple’s iPad was introduced three months into 2010, and the market was almost completely untested. By the end of the year, it was pretty clear the iPad was here to stay, so consumers felt confident this wasn’t just a fad.

In 2012, Apple faces competition from low-cost devices like the Amazon’s Kindle Fire. That alone probably won’t be enough to take the winds out of its sails, but it could stop Apple from having another year ruling the tablet landscape without a credible competitor in sight.

Projected growth of 35 percent is also just that: projected. Back in late 2010, Wall Street predicted Apple would sell 28 million iPads in 2011 (though later estimates offered more realistic estimates). Apple still has a new iPad to unveil this year, which could boast QXGA 2,048 x 1,536 resolution screens, which DisplaySearch believes will likely be provided by LG, Samsung and Sharp. It’s hard to predict what demand for a Retina Display iPad will be, and how keeping an iPad 2 on the shelves as a lower-cost option might affect shipment volume, should that rumor turn out to be true.

Plus, even if Apple just meets the 65-million mark predicted by DisplaySearch, that will still represent a volume just 30 million shy of 2011′s worldwide PC shipments from all manufacturers combined.

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If you checked out my hands-on of the Kindle Cloud Reader back in August, you’ll already have a good idea of how the touch-optimized store works: You can browse recommendations and categories via a smooth scrolling highlights section with full cover pics, or check out best-seller lists. Big, finger-friendly buttons abound, making it much easier to browse and buy. In general, it’s far superior to using Amazon’s standard site.

Now that the store is broken out on its own, you can add it to your home screen for easy access, and also all books now offer the option to read samples and full purchased versions directly from your native Kindle app instantly. You can also still opt to read in the Kindle Cloud Reader web app, if you prefer.

I liked my initial experience with the Cloud Reader, but it wasn’t compelling enough to get me to abandon the native Kindle app. Now, the new optimized store site means it’ll be even easier for me to check out new content on my iPad, all while using my reading method of choice. This is a smart move for Amazon, which is clearly still seeing the value in keeping an up-to-date native offering available for iOS device owners, as it proved with its substantial update to the iPad app in December. Considering apps seem to be gaining momentum on mobile devices as compared to the web, that’s not surprising.

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After an initial report from AllThingsD introduced the possibility of the event, while also stressing that nothing fun like the iPad 3 or an Apple iTV would be discussed, TechCrunch’s Alexia Tsotsis says the site confirmed with its own source that the subject at the NYC event will be publishing and e-books. Considering reports indicate Apple SVP of Internet Software and Services Eddy Cue will be prominently involved, it’s a focus area that makes a lot of sense.

Cue is in charge of the iBookstore, as well as the iTunes and App Stores, iAd and iCloud. He’s the one who took the stage the last time Apple had a publishing-specific event, when it unveiled News Corp.’s The Daily. Apple used the opportunity to highlight the introduction of in-app subscriptions, which allowed publishers to provide digital subscriptions on a recurring basis for their in-app periodical content, in exchange for a 30-percent cut of revenue for Apple.

Despite The Daily‘s lukewarm reception, in-app subscriptions have definitely been a hit for Apple and publishers alike. Condé Nast reported its subscriptions skyrocketed following the feature’s introduction, and more recently, Popular Science revealed a healthy growth spurt once it switched to using in-app subs.

But that early success is about to face its first big challenge, now that Amazon is essentially launching a full-court press with its own digital periodical offerings alongside the introduction of the Kindle Fire. Recently, Amazon updated its iOS app to be able to access the same digital magazine subscriptions it offers for its new Android-based tablet, giving them the cross-platform appeal that keeps the Kindle bookstore out ahead of Apple’s own iBookstore.

Apple could be taking steps to arm itself against this effort from Amazon with improvements to its publishing platform, and one such improvement could be opening up a new digital self-publishing platform, according to sources talking to Good e-Reader. That would allow Apple to compete with similar offerings from both Amazon and Barnes & Noble, providing Apple the ability to negotiate directly with independent authors for exclusive publishing rights. If Apple can convince some big names to go iOS-only, it might provide a kick in the pants for iBooks’ lackluster sales performance thus far.

Apple’s publishing efforts, and iBooks in particular, are in need of some invigoration in the face of the competition. A targeted media event in January would be a good way for Apple to call attention to any new features it plans on introducing in order to raise the profile of its attempts to compete with other platforms. The introduction of The Daily last year may not have been that exciting from a consumer standpoint, but it ensured everyone knew all about in-app subscriptions in advance of the feature’s launch. Expect a similar industry-targeted feature evangelizing event, should Apple hold one late this month.

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The 7-inch iPad has been in testing at Apple for “over a year,” according to what Blair told AllThingsD’s John Paczkowski, but the firm doesn’t expect the company to release anything for the public based on that design in 2012. That runs contrary to reports we have heard earlier, including one from last week that suggested a 7.85-inch device was set for a late 2012 introduction, based on supply chain information.

My colleague Kevin Tofel suggested that there were good reasons to believe a smaller iPad could indeed be on the way; these include portability, credible competition in that space, dwindling iPod touch sales and a lower price point. Blair thinks that price is the main issue Apple actually has to address in terms of keeping the competition in check, and he suggests that Apple can work on that element without compromising on a screen “too small to express the software,” as Jobs had described the 7-inch form factor.

Instead, Wedge Partners sees Apple’s keeping the iPad 2 as part of its lineup following the introduction of an iPad 3 and just dropping the price of the iPad 2. It’s a strategy we have seen Apple use with the iPhone; it keeps the previous-generation device available as a lower-cost option, and with the iPhone 4S launch, it even kept the iPhone from two models ago, which can be had for free with a contract in the U.S.

Obviously Apple didn’t do this with the original iPad as a low-cost alternative to the iPad 2 this year when the newer tablet was introduced, but the situation has changed. When the iPad 2 came out, there was no tablet competitor that posed any real threat to Apple’s dominance. Now the Kindle Fire appears to be doing well, and Apple has to consider that others will join it and Barnes & Noble with an end run at the low end of the market. Also, the iPad 2 offered relatively little in terms of big splashy changes over the original; if an iPad 3 comes packing a Retina Display, as rumors suggest, it should be a big-enough upgrade to allow the iPad 2 to remain on sale without drawing too many sales away from the newer device. This is especially true if Apple cuts the storage on the older device to 8 GB, as it has traditionally done with older iPhones.

A cheaper iPad 2 alongside the iPad 3 is a way for Apple to have its cake and eat it too. It can press the advantages of a larger screen while also competing on price, which would work well from a marketing perspective (“Bigger is better, but not more expensive”). We will have to wait and see to find out what Apple actually does, but Blair’s thinking makes an awful lot of sense to this Apple watcher.

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The update includes some iPad-only goodies that take advantage of the device’s larger screen, as well as some general changes for all versions that replicate and one-up features found in Apple’s own iBooks, making it a much better all-around solution for users who’d rather just have one e-reading app on their devices. Here’s a breakdown of what’s new:

All devices

Kindle Personal Documents Service. Both iPhone and iPad users can now take advantage of Amazon’s Kindle Personal Document Service, which lets users email their own documents to special Send-to-Kindle email addresses assigned to each Amazon Kindle user account. The document will then show up in their iPad, iPhone or iPod touch Kindle app library, and be available for re-download across devices. Note that this does incur a fee, and requires a few initial steps to get set up. You can check out Amazon’s full guide to its Personal Document Service here for more info.

PDF Reader. Kindle apps for iOS now feature a built-in PDF reader that can open files from Mail or Safari, or PDFs transferred directly from a user’s computer via iTunes. The PDF feature also works with documents transferred using the newly-integrated Personal Documents Service mentioned above. This was the main (if not the only) advantage of iBooks over the Kindle app in my opinion, so now that it’s gone I’ll probably just use the Amazon app full-time.

iPad-only

New magazine design. Amazon is clearly trying to stay on top of the competition from Newsstand here, and in fact, its magazines now work with Newsstand. Amazon’s Kindle newspaper and magazine library now extends to the over 400 titles available on the Kindle Fire.

Print replica textbooks. Those still in school will benefit greatly from this feature, which makes thousands of print replica textbooks available on the iPad via the Kindle app. Textbook rentals are also available, and the print replica formatting means that it’ll be even easier for students to follow along in class with page and section numbering while also enjoying the advantages of a digital edition (searching, linked content, etc.)

This is a big, solid update from a company that’s currently nursing its own competitive tablet platform, and I must say I’m pretty impressed. What do you think of the new Kindle apps?

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Moskowitz is mostly reiterating what he heard from Apple CEO Tim Cook and CFO Peter Oppenheimer in a recent sit-down with them, during which they discussed the Kindle Fire’s role in relation to the iPad. Moskowitz came away with the clear impression that “Apple is not seeing much pressure from lower-priced tablets” and that current Kindle Fire buyers “could gravitate to more feature-rich experiences” down the road based on their initial use of the cheaper Amazon device.

J.P. Morgan and Apple execs apparently aren’t all that concerned over Amazon’s new Android tablet, which is already projected to beat the sales of all other tablets based on the Google mobile platform by the end of this quarter. And it’s true that the Kindle Fire could act as a sort of gateway drug, turning users on to the tablet experience but leaving them craving features missing from the Amazon device, like a full-fledged market of applications targeted to large-screen devices, a larger screen itself and cellular data access.

It’s an admittedly rosy outlook from a source with a vested interest in seeing this outcome come to pass, however. There is another obvious possibility to contend with too: Users could find that the Kindle Fire provides everything they really need in a tablet experience (web browsing, media playback) for an acceptable price and might not look further. Whether or not those users would have looked at iPads otherwise or whether another, significant portion of Fire owners might not find themselves wanting more is another question.

I think Apple’s optimistic outlook should pan out, however, as long as one thing remains true: tablets continue to encroach upon and replace PCs as primary computing devices for general users. In that case, the Kindle Fire and the iPad likely will enter into a mutually beneficial orbit, with the cheaper device’s drawing in first-time tablet users and the iPad’s acting as a sort of graduation gift for when they opt to use tablets as their main computers.

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My recent experiences during a major power outage showed to me the one big downside to going 100-percent digital on books: When your battery dies, you can’t read a book, even in the daylight. Plus, the iPad was a little too large to just toss in my pocket when I left the house. Some people can’t leave the house without a pack of smokes; I can’t leave without a book.

I started becoming more interested in Kindle hardware in light of those problems. However, the prices just weren’t at a point I was happy with for a supplemental device. Today’s announcements have changed that.

Kindle Fire

While the Kindle Fire is likely to be a fine tablet, for me, it underscores some problems I have with the iPad: The IPS screen is going to be  nightmare to read outside, and at eight hours of battery life, it doesn’t have the month (or two) of long-lasting power that the e-ink Kindles do. My mobile gaming needs are met quite well with the iPad. As a technology commentator, though, I expect I’ll get one. The $199 price tag for an n0n-iPad tablet is a much easier pill to swallow than the $499 and up for other Android tablets. I do find it interesting that Amazon merged two distinct approaches: taking advantage of an open operating system (Android), yet creating a curated experience like Apple’s.

Were I not a tech commentator, and instead the average iPad user, I could see myself getting a Fire in these scenarios: Either I use Amazon steaming a lot, or I want a second tablet that travels better owing to its small size. In this economy, unless you can pretend you need one for “work,” I have a hard time seeing anyone needing a second tablet, no matter the price. But for those who can justify the expense, the Kindle Fire fills in some gaps, especially for users already heavily invested in the Android ecosystem.

The new Kindles

Now we’re taking. Books are my primary media consumption. The iPad isn’t good for reading in any situation where light is being cast on the screen. Ten hours of battery life is nice, but I’d like to not have to worry about that at all, which is what the e-ink Kindles offer. The size of the new e-readers is also right for “throw it in my jacket pocket” situations.

A Kindle reader under a hundred bucks perfectly fits my price point for buying a second reading device in addition to the iPad. I’ve ordered a Kindle for $79. Sure, it’s ad-supported, but from what I’ve been hearing the ads aren’t intrusive to my reading experience anyway.

A tale of apps

The big difference between Amazon and Apple is that Apple wants to sell you hardware, and Amazon just wants to sell you content. I believe Apple releasing iBooks for Android would be a sign of failure for its strategy. Amazon, on the other hand, doesn’t give a hoot what you read your book on, just that you the book from them.

Up until today, my e-reading plan was to buy the book on Amazon, and read it on my iPad. Now, I’m going to be mostly using the Kindle to read my books. Whispersync will do its job and I can read on my iPad, too, without losing my place. The lack of a keyboard or touch interface on the new entry-level Kindle doesn’t bother me. Almost all of my Kindle books are purchased via the web on my Mac.

Amazon has done something very smart with its table and e-reader strategy: priced its devices at a point where owning them in addition to other devices makes sense. The new Kindles don’t have to beat the iPad, especially when Amazon’s app strategy means that they can all play nice together.

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Credit: Amazon.com

Amazon’s Kindle Fire is now a known quantity, thanks to details supplied to Bloomberg ahead of the official announcement at Amazon’s press event Wednesday. The Android-based tablet has an attractive price, but to get there, it cut so many corners it probably won’t make much of a dent in Apple’s market lead with the iPad.

The Kindle Fire has a 7-inch display, no camera and no microphone. It can only connect to a Wi-Fi network, and there’s no built-in 3G connection. It also only carries 8 GB of on-board memory, with no options for memory expansion. These barebones features enabled Amazon to reach the Fire’s low price point of $199, while the Barnes & Noble Nook Color costs $249, and the iPad begins at $499.

Amazon’s goal with this device is clearly to offer something cheap that provides enough features and functionality to appeal to the general public. The company also hopes that Amazon’s ecosystem of digital goods can help it bring in customers; it provides video on demand, e-book and music sales, and it can store much of that content in the cloud.

The problem is that Amazon hasn’t really unveiled much with the Fire besides a fairly basic delivery method for sales of its digital offerings. Limited storage means Amazon’s cloud services are almost a necessity for buyers, and yet the lack of 3G means that accessing content when you’re away from home will be difficult. The lack of both camera and microphone also mean that people can’t easily use this for taking or sharing mobile photos, or as a phone replacement with VoIP apps.

The new Silk browser tech that does much of the processing work on Amazon’s EC2 servers is also interesting, but again severely limited by the Wi-Fi-only network access. Amazon also didn’t talk about battery life, and a decision not to talk about it could mean it doesn’t compare favorably to the iPad’s all-day power.

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos talked a lot about early skepticism in the media about the original Kindle’s chances at success at today’s press conference — skepticism that didn’t end up coming true. But the Fire is entering a different market on different terms. Bezos also noted that Amazon has a strong ecosystem, and that’s been a large part of its success, but that alone won’t make sub-par hardware appealing. Especially considering that Amazon’s streaming media services are generally U.S.-centric.

A fresh coat of paint on Android will help set the Fire apart, but repackaging an OS that’s already struggling to match Apple’s in terms of tablet success, and then putting it on hardware that’s basically a stripped down PlayBook isn’t a recipe for an Kindle-iPad killer.

The Kindle Fire could admittedly do well; it’s a very portable device with a smart UI that provides access to an extensive ecosystem, and I fully expect it to give the Nook Color a run for its money, or even bury that device. But what it won’t do is knock the iPad off its pedestal, not when it feels like yet another Android tablet rushed to market in an attempt to stem the tide of users to Apple’s ecosystem.

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TechCrunch’s early look on Friday of a pre-release model tells us the Amazon tablet will be a 7-inch color touchscreen tablet running a non-tablet version of Android on a single-core chip, with very little local storage. It will probably cost $250 and be Wi-Fi only to start, and it’s going to be called the Amazon Kindle. The name implies Amazon is not selling it as a tablet, but more as an e-reader that does much, much more. That makes it sound less like an iPad and more like the Barnes & Noble Nook Color. That’s the first of many ways that the two differ in their approach.

The cores of their businesses are also fundamentally different. Apple is a hardware company. The iTunes Store and App Store do well and they are important parts of  its business, but the purpose of the hardware isn’t just a pretty and pricey vehicle to sell music, videos, games, apps and software. The videos and apps are there to enable people to enjoy their iPod, iPhone or iPad. Amazon is an e-commerce company. They sell books, makeup, jewelry, electronics, etc. And, of course, lots and lots of e-books. That’s why Amazon sells the Kindle: principally as a way to sell more e-books.

Amazon also sells $79-per-year subscriptions in Amazon Prime that lets you get all the stuff you buy from them really fast for one low shipping price paid up front. Amazon’s forthcoming tablet is said to be integrated with Amazon services (think Amazon’s MP3 store, Cloud Drive and video-on-demand) you’re signed up for and, very significantly, free access to Prime. As Morgan Stanley says in a research note Tuesday, the latter is the key factor in what will make this tablet successful for Amazon:

The Tablet will accelerate customer adoption of Amazon’s Prime offering through potentially pairing the service with Tablet purchases. We estimate Prime customers annually spend 4-5x the amount of non-Prime customers and that global Prime customers total ~12MM of which ~7-8MM reside in the US (144MM total active users). Between new accounts and current, non-Prime accounts upgrading to Prime, net sales per active account has plenty of room to grow.

The idea of Amazon giving away free Prime subscriptions isn’t just a gimmick to get people to buy hardware. It’s one of the reasons they’re selling the hardware in the first place, since people buy more things when it’s easier for them. And people who have Prime, according to Morgan Stanley, buy more things from Amazon than those who don’t have Prime.

So those who use Amazon Prime or have accumulated music, videos, and are users of other Amazon services are going to be very excited by a new Amazon Kindle. The new Kindle is attractive in that it’s an e-reader that also does other stuff, whereas the iPad is positioned more as a general device.

In terms of specs, Amazon is apparently not attempting to build a technically superior tablet to the iPad. (A good move, since we’ve seen how well faster, more robust tablets with “access to the full web” have done versus the iPad.) Again, Amazon’s business is selling stuff.

The two are different devices, and the Amazon tablet is clearly not designed as an “iPad killer.” And whether or not Amazon can catch up to Apple’s 24 million iPads sold in 15 months, isn’t the right rubric for whether it’s been successful for Amazon.

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Amazon introduced Kindle Cloud Reader on Wednesday, an HTML5-based web application that runs in mobile Safari on the iPad, Safari on the Mac and PC, and Chrome on the Mac and other desktop operating systems. Amazon has promised support for additional browsers and platforms soon, but the fact that the iPad is in the launch group of devices makes clear Amazon’s main goal with this endeavor, which is to provide its customers with a full Kindle experience on the Apple tablet, including access to the integrated Kindle Store.

So how does it work? Once you navigate to http://read.amazon.com in your iPad’s Safari browser, you’ll be greeted with an invitation to sign in with your Amazon/Kindle account. Signing in will bring you to a screen featuring your library of Kindle book purchases, as well as a prompt directing you to allow Safari to increase the size of the database permitted for the site. This is used for the offline cache Cloud Reader maintains for reading without an active internet connection. Kindle Cloud Reader lets you tap and hold books from your library to download them to local storage for offline reading, and also stores books you are currently reading offline automatically, so that your reading won’t be interrupted if you lose connection.

Actually reading books in Cloud Reader is a pleasure, and you’d be hard-pressed to tell that you aren’t using a native app, especially if you place a shortcut to the web app on your iPad’s home screen, which launched the reader in a chrome-less, full-screen browser. You can change the font size and color of your books in Cloud Reader, and also view highlights, notes and bookmarks you’ve made on other devices. You can’t make new notes or highlights using the web app, but you can add new bookmarks just by tapping the upper right-hand corner of any page, even offline. It also works in both landscape and portrait orientations, as does the integrated store.

Some of the frills of the native app are missing, like page turn animations, access to Kindle periodicals, and the ability to search through a book for keywords. You also can’t look up terms in the dictionary the way you can in the full-fledged native Kindle app. But if you use those extra features sparingly, and go through books quickly, then Cloud Reader’s built-in bookstore might make up for those omissions.

The Kindle Store included in Cloud Reader makes browsing for books on your iPad a pleasure. You get a scrollable selection of recommendations at the top of the interface, and a list of best sellers and category navigation below that. You can search the store at any point, and navigate back and forward as you browse. The individual book listings actually provide you with more info at-a-glance in a more sensibly organized way than on the Kindle Store in the desktop browser, and you can try a sample of any book in the Amazon e-book library, which loads up right in the standard Cloud Reader reading interface. Unfortunately, it doesn’t remember where you were when you switch to your library; jumping back to the store brings you to the front page.

In the end, Kindle Cloud reader works, and works well, but purely for e-reading purposes, it doesn’t really match up to its native app counterpart. That said, the ability to shop for books and read them immediately might outweigh the disadvantages for some. For me, Kindle Cloud Reader will remain on my home screen, but I won’t be using it primarily for reading; I’ll be using it to buy. The iPad-optimized Kindle Store is a pleasure to shop, and thanks to iOS multitasking, I can pretty easily switch back and forth between the native and web-based Kindle apps. Even if I don’t use Cloud Reader as a native app replacement, it does prove one thing: Keeping integrated e-book stores out of native apps benefits no one but Apple.

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Steve Jobs first showed off the iPad on stage using a chair and crossing one leg across the other to provide a decent platform from which to use it. Surely we can do better. That’s the idea behind PadPivot, a Kickstarter-funded project that recently began shipping units to backers, and will soon be accepting pre-orders from the general public. I was lucky enough to take an early look at the PadPivot, and it’s a prime example of everything that’s right with Kickstarter-funded projects.

The stand for anywhere

The PadPivot is a small, foldable stand that features a rotating pad (hence the name) that has both a slip-resistant dust cover, and a no-slip sticky covered surface under said dust cover, called the Grip Plate. You can either use it with the cover, or remove it and stick the pad to the back of the iPad, which guarantees it isn’t going anywhere. This comes in handy when you’re using the PadPivot for what it was primarily designed for: resting your iPad on your thigh at a comfortable angle for viewing.

It does so thanks to a concave base with rubberized grips that should fit comfortably on most legs. Once you rotate the pad to the desired angle (and tighten it into place) you can prop up the iPad for movie viewing, browsing or typing, leaving both hands free and not requiring that you cross your legs at a possibly uncomfortable angle. If you’re in a car or somewhere where you’re worried the iPad might slip off, just take off the dust cover and make use of the reusable, non-marking adhesive underneath.

But the PadPivot doesn’t stop there. You can also flip the pad around to use it as a desktop stand with an angle more akin to what you’d get from stand offerings like the Griffin A-Frame, and it works with either portrait or landscape orientations.

The stand that goes everywhere

Thanks to very clever design work, the PadPivot isn’t only adaptable to a variety of situations, but also convenient to carry pretty much wherever you happen to be headed. Once you unscrew the pad and screw it back in on the bottom of the device, you can fold up the PadPivot’s leg-straddling wings and either toss it in a pocket or in a bag. It weighs next to nothing and takes up very little space. It is a bit annoying that you have to remove a part and reassemble it every time you use it, bur for me, that’s a small price to pay for a lot of added convenience.

Verdict

The PadPivot was conceived as an iPad accessory, but it works equally well with other tablets and e-reader devices like the Kindle and Nook. Using the Grip Plate, it can even keep smaller devices like the iPhone firmly mounted on rocky car or bus rides. Bottom line, the PadPivot may be the last iPad stand I buy, and is definitely the one designed with the most ingenuity that I’ve ever encountered.

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Many, myself included, were hoping that Apple’s implementation of new rules that prevent e-book retailers from linking out to their own storefronts had permanently fallen by the wayside when they didn’t immediately go into effect after the original June 30 cutoff date. Unfortunately, events this past weekend proved that may not be the case.

The biggest development is that Google Books is no longer available on the App Store. The app, introduced in December of last year, allows users to read books from Google’s e-book service. It also provides access to the web-based Google eBooks store, which is against Apple’s new rules. The banning of outside links seems designed to prevent e-book resellers from bypassing Apple’s own in-app purchase mechanism, from which Apple garners a 30 percent cut of revenue.

While Google hasn’t yet confirmed that the rule change is the reason for the app’s removal (we’ve contacted them and will let you know if they do provide comment), given changes that have taken place in other e-book apps in recent days, it seems very likely. E-reader software from Kobo and Barnes & Noble has been recently updated, and the links to their respective online stores are now absent from the app.

The last major holdout is Amazon, which still hasn’t issued a change for its Kindle app. Kindle for iOS still prominently displays a button that links out to the Kindle store on the web. Amazon is arguably the only e-book retailer in a strong-enough position to be able to negotiate with Apple regarding the new rules for e-book stores, since it reaches a very large audience through its presence on virtually every platform. Amazon is also known to be working on its own tablet device, which could give it even more bargaining power. Barnes & Noble and Kobo would likely stand to gain a lot if Amazon decides to leave the Apple ecosystem and go it alone, since users who decide to stick with iOS will need a replacement e-book resource.

As a Kindle user and iOS-device owner, I’m hoping that we see a solution that allows the Kindle app to remain in the App Store. But as an industry observer, I’d be very interested to see who would fare better if users are forced to choose between Amazon’s better e-reader software and library, or Apple hardware. Anyone care to place any early bets?

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