New Kindle ad disses iPad

If you can’t beat ’em…attack ’em. Nothing delivers a marketing message quite like making fun of a competitor, and with mounting pressure from other e-reader makers, that’s exactly what Kindle has turned to.

A new commercial for the Kindle highlights the device’s ability to function in bright, sunny environments. It takes place alongside a pool, with a hapless guy using his iPad and a beautiful woman with the new $139 Kindle Wi-Fi model.

The guy looks at his iPad and sees terrible glare, unable to really use it. Then he asks the girl how she’s able to use her e-reader in the bright light. “It’s a Kindle,” she says. The guy just looks at his iPad, disappointed.

The pathetic device in the commercials is not mentioned by name, but it is clearly an iPad. Amazon has been threatened by the tablet device since it launched earlier this year. However, the Kindle does remain the top-selling dedicated e-reader by far.

The Kindle has special display technology that is designed to make it usable in any kind of lighting. It reduces eye strain caused by standard LCD displays, which is what the iPad uses.

The iPad also hasn’t really garnered a lot of attention for its use as an e-book platform. The Kindle’s more real competitor is the Barnes & Noble Nook, which has become a completely unabashed focus for the #1 bookstore chain. It is that device more than anything else that has forced Apple to change its game plan.