I've had my Amazon Kindle for about a month now. It's a great device, despite its many shortcomings. The E Ink screen looks great. Unlike the backlit LCD displays on my iPhone or laptop, the E Ink screen doesn't tire my eyes after even hours of continuous use. Of course, the Kindle's display can't display colors, refreshes slowly and doesn't quite match the contrast ratio of a printed page. Nor does Kindle have the same heft and tactility that a real book does. But it's a great device for long-form, linear reading.

Now, however, everyone's attention has turned to Apple's impending announcement on Wednesday, where pundits expect the Cupertino-based company will release some kind of tablet form-factor device. While I'm sure I'll follow the Steve Jobs presentation zealously, I can't imagine what Apple could possibly announce that would compel me to part with another $300 of my money. (Granted, I think I made a similar comment even after Steve Jobs had announced the iPhone in January 2007, six months before I bought one the day after they went on sale.)

On the one hand, I have a laptop, one of those wonderful 15 inch unibody MacBook Pros. It may not be effortless to carry around, but it's certainly portable, and there's little I can't do with it. On the other hand, I have an iPhone, which, while nowhere near as powerful as my laptop, is extremely portable and fulfills 80% of my computing needs. I can check my email, browse the web, listen to my music and even unlock a ZipCar. Together, and supplemented by my Kindle, there's rarely a moment my technology bubble can't support what I need or want to accomplish.

Some have pointed to the Apple tablet as a Kindle competitor, positioning it as a sort of "multimedia surface." Indeed, Amazon quietly announced last week a new 70-30 revenue sharing policy (à la the Apple App Store) for authors peddling their works in the Kindle Store. They also took the wraps of a Kindle SDK to allow developers to write "apps" for the Kindle. But, unless the Apple device has some kind of dual-mode display that can swap between E Ink and a standard LCD, I doubt whether any serious reader would opt for the Apple device over the the Kindle. For me at least, the killer feature of the Kindle is the easy-to-read E Ink display. As for multimedia applications, I've never really been satisfied watching movies or TV shows on my iPhone, and I doubt the new tablet will be much better, even at a rumored seven inches.

But I'm not one to underestimate Steve Jobs and Apple. I'll probably have one of these tablet devices before the year is out.