Jim Haysom | This Is Your Life an internet professional in digital advertising

Apple iBooks a Kindle killer with iPad launch?

Well Steve Jobs loves it, and another Apple launch today that has created media frenzy and instant iWant consumer demand, the launch of the iPad. Apple's tablet which allows book lovers to read e-books in a digital form (er, obviously), is going to give Amazon's wireless reader, the Kindle, something to compete with.

Now I'm very brand conscious and loyal. A colleague recently said, "Jim, you're all about the brand aren't you?" or words to that affect. Looking down at my desk, I shuffled the Apple iPhone to one side, stretched out my D&G denim legs, nudged the Prada glasses up my nose, and calmly replied, "of course". I don't deny enjoying the finer things in life, and whilst I am an early adopter for some digital gadgets, I do like to suss out the options, do my mansearch and read reviews, before paying the full premium in day or week one.

Now I have owned an Apple 20GB iPod early generation and 16GB iPod Touch. One was a present and was thrown into a bath by my son, the second a prize a won at a clients Xmas party in 2007 and sold for a £100 profit this month. With these out the way, I've gone out this month and bought a 16GB iPod Nano and got an Apple iPhone 3GS 16GB. The Nano to run with and the iPhone to play with.

But will I be rushing out to pre-order the Apple iPad touch-screen handheld computer? No. Did I end up buying the MacBook or iMac last week, as per my blog post in search of a laptop and desktop replacement? No. I actually bought a silver Sony Vaio FW51MF/H instead with a whopping 16.4 inch full HD screen. Oops, another brand purchase.

Looking at the iPad and asking myself, do I actually need it or do iWant it? The answer is neither. When you access the web, email, and Apple's apps on the iPhone or a laptop, is there really any need for a 9.7 inch screen that weighs 1.5lb and fork out another £499 for a non mobile SIM enabled iPad. I'd like to see Belkin and Exspect come up with some giant leather and clear crystal cases and accessories for a tablet that size!

Apple are pretty smart people. I mean, they've called their online music store iTunes. Some bright Californian spark must have stood up at a company meeting and said "let's call this eBook reader an iPad which users turn the pages of their purchased iBooks from the iBookstore". What a genius.

With Google launching the Nexus and trying to get books online, you can see that if you cannot beat them with one thing, join them instead. It will be interesting to see how this technology warfare pans out over the next few years between the likes of Apple, Microsoft and Google. It won't be long before Google launch a netbook or laptop to compete, offer free broadband or mobile broadband, and do your ironing.

Consumer brands like Sony, who have already an ebook reader in the market, must be shitting themselves. All that money spent on R&D, brand marketing and PR, only to see a fluffed audience be sold on a book tablet idea and then buy from the competition. Retailers like Waterstones must be rubbing their hands.

I was tempted by the Sony eBook Digital Book Reader. Slim, lightweight and sexy to look at. Everything I aspire to be. But I just don't read enough books to warrant coughing up a few hundred notes for me and worry about another bloody thing to charge up. The electric companies must be loving this cyclical power surge.

I don't know anyone who has a Kindle from Amazon nor a Sony eBook. People I know who love reading, actually love a good book. I take it that means a physical paperback. Millions of books are bought each year, but is there any point to bring out another gadget which the existing ones could potentially do?

You should be able to get the iBooks app on the Apple iPhone. Let me download digital books to my mobile and let me read them at my convenience without lugging around piece of technology in the pocket. I do that with movies and TV programmes. Then I can buy my books, movies and music in one place... not iTunes, but the Apple iStore. I'm sure it's only a matter of time.

Apple have enough money to buy iStore.com from The Information Store, Inc, and let them get on and improve asset performance, reduce cycle time and maximize return on investment for petroleum companies with their digital oilfield solutions.

Apple Store is offline retail, Apple iStore is online retail. Mr Jobs, this is a no brainer, so sort it out and let me have share of the buy out for aligning your brand identities. Invoice will be put in the post in due course or alternatively I will happily accept a lifetime of your products.