Depends on what you want to do and what you want to spend. I am typing on my kindle fire now. You can surf the Internet, read books, listen to books, and do pretty much everything you do on the iPad except take pictures and Skype. The kindle fire is $199. and the new iPad is $599. I'd rather use that $400 for fabric. Just another opinion. I have a camera and a laptop for skyping. So don't need iPad. I feel picture & images on kindle are excellent.