Is iPad a Kindle-killer? Sure.

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Digital boss Jonathan Miller gives Apple some love at MIPTV

News Corporation's digital boss Jonathan Miller thinks iPad will provide stiff competition for Amazon's Kindle, and could even kill it if Amazon doesn't radically retool its e-book reader. He sees iPad as a Kindle-killer.

"My personal belief? Sure," he said, before suggesting that Amazon will need to revamp Kindle to catch up to iPad's colour, touchscreen and video capabilities.Miller said that News Corp has adopted a policy of "tremendous engagement" when it comes to digital media and mobile entertainment, citing the Wall Street Journal's iPad app as a key example.He also reaffirmed the company's commitment to paid models for its content.

"Is content expanding faster than advertising can support it? That's just true," he said, before discussing the problem in relation to online TV portal Hulu - which is rumoured to be mulling the launch of a paid app for iPad."It has to continue to accelerate its user base, and grapple with this question of free versus paid," he said. "We believe in paid models for highly produced forms of content in general."

Miller also talked about the new distribution environment for News Corp subsidiary Fox's TV and movie content, in relation to Apple's iTunes Store.He referred to the way Apple's "primary job is to sell devices", which creates "a new tension that we haven't had before" if Apple decides to charge less for content than companies like Fox would like.Asked if he sees any chance of News Corp taking a slice of iPad hardware revenues, Miller gave a one-word answer: "No."

Finally, Miller was asked about the emerging social location space - apps like Foursquare and Gowalla - and whether this is interesting for News Corp in relation to its MySpace subsidiary, or even to Fox and its newspapers."Do I see it as a big deal? Over time, sure. Do I think in the next 18 months it's a revenue stream? No."

iPad - a Kindle-killer