iSlate, Kindle and travel – a marriage made in heaven or heading for a quickie divorce?

This week will probably see the launch of Apple’s Tablet – the iSlate (I had backed iTablet as the name but apparently there were copyright issues). So iSlate it is.

The unveiling of the product will give a big boost to the eReader category and resulting adoption.

Lazard Freres analyst Colin Sebastian has done an excellent research piece on the Tablet/Slate/eReader Market in his regular subscriber bulletin.

While reading his analysis I pondered whether or not the adoption of eReaders is a good or bad thing for the travel market.

In general, one could think that this is really good and valuable. A single Kindle or Nook or iSlate of the size of a single Lonely Planet guide book sounds lit a good idea. And it has convergence written all over it.

One of the core principals of the eReader is that it is lightly connected.

However, Kindle is not that great in many parts of the country and sometimes useless in the place you need it most – outside the USA.

I am sure however that this will get fixed but will you as the punter user be prepared to tote yet another device and deal with yet another set of connectivity issues?

Further, how rugged will it be? For serious leisure adventurers (largely American, but there are a good number of Brit and German types) the dog eared post-it note covered Lonely Planet or other guide book is part of the traveller kit!

However, I think that this will take some time. An eReader will not likely be the primary item that someone takes with them on a trip.

It will be an added tote to the Crackberry/iPhone or Netbook or light laptop. The statistics I have seen of the number of people who now sneak a peak to their email while on holiday is no longer a minor issue – its accepted.

Yes, we are all serially sad people and continually maintaining our connectivity to the real and pseudo social worlds is now a way of life.

Somehow, I believe that the eReader market will be a short lived step along the way.

Like sat-navs (GPS receivers for the non-Brits). The price of sat-navs has fallen so low that they are an accepted appliance, but already most Smartphones have GDS capabilities (with Nokia the latest to market, with its free version).

For Crackberry and iPhones and now Google Android devices, this is pretty useful.

I still believe we will coalesce around two form factors – the full functioned laptop and the smartphone device.

There will be a market for iPods and other specialist niche products, but for the rest of us it may just be a passing fad with a fairly short lifespan.

Roll on digital paper… Products like Que and Skiff which address the form factor may be worth waiting for.

At the moment they are a tad pricey. So I will watch and wait. However if someone wants to send me the first color Kindle or an iSlate… I wont say no.

I might even buy one for the coolness factor!