Steve Jobs on MacBook Air, Android and Kindle

[evilyankeefan]

It can't possibly be made there. There's no room for all the Wiis sitting around. Nintendo is throttling Wii supply to create and sustain high demand, and perception of high demand. This seems stupid or inaccurate, considering games console manufacturers make money off first-party games or third-party games licensed via the console maker, while losing money on each console. Any games console manufacturer should want as many consoles in the hands of consumers as possible so they will buy games so the console manufacturer can make money.

Except Nintendo. Nintendo makes a tidy profit on hardware, for a long time, I think perhaps since their first console.

haha true. Amazon wouldn't do anything like this as they just lose out as they couldn't sell the books for it.

Will be interesting to see what happens when Amazon releases numbers for units/books/newpapers sold. will probably change its' tune then. MWSF 2009? Or someone will find hidden stuff related to book/newspaper sales in iTunes.

 

[diamond.g]

It can't possibly be made there. There's no room for all the Wiis sitting around. Nintendo is throttling Wii supply to create and sustain high demand, and perception of high demand. This seems stupid or inaccurate, considering games console manufacturers make money off first-party games or third-party games licensed via the console maker, while losing money on each console. Any games console manufacturer should want as many consoles in the hands of consumers as possible so they will buy games so the console manufacturer can make money.

Except Nintendo. Nintendo makes a tidy profit on hardware, for a long time, I think perhaps since their first console.

Yes, Nintendo has millions of Wii's sitting in warehouses... If Nintendo makes 1.8 million Wii's a month and sells 1.5 million a month (500k per territory) then there are 300k somewhere. Best guess? The distibutors are holding on to the units hoping to make more money be forcing bundles. Or they are holding units hoping to sell them on a particular day (see Besy Buy's Sunday ad approach).

Oddly enough Sony and Microsoft popularized/started the trend (sorta) of selling hardware for a loss. Which is why Apple would never get into the console business again.

 

[LethalWolfe]

oh..come on..everything apple makes is a niche product. even ipods. I mean..merely 10% of all albums are bought through digital distribution.

That's a poor example for a couple of reasons. First, what is on an iPod is not limited to only what can be purchased via iTMS and, second, sales of on-line music are still exploding while CD sales continue to fall. Now would not be a good time to hit the market place w/an exciting new portable CD player.


Lethal

 

[redrabbit]

I liked that tablet mockup. My favorite part is the two USB ports (dream on)

Anyways, Steve obviously thinks the kindle is flawed because it has a user replaceable battery!

 

[killerrobot]

I think its funny that people only consider reading books as reading (including Jobs himself obviously).
Everyone literate reads something everyday, whether it be a newspaper/magazine article, email, notes, papers & reports, receipts, (i could go on forever) etc...
I prefer reading books and magazines in the flesh, but the kindle seems pretty cool - and so are amazon's ideas to publish electronic versions of international magazines and newspapers along with its .doc, .png, .jpg compatibility, etc (I think they missed the mark without the .pdf but that's for a future rev).
I for one think Jobs might know something about computers, but he obviously has no idea about the future of a paperless society and the impact that the kindle will have.

 

[sanford]

I think its funny that people only consider reading books as reading (including Jobs himself obviously).
Everyone literate reads something everyday, whether it be a newspaper/magazine article, email, notes, papers & reports, receipts, (i could go on forever) etc...

There's a difference, in usage, between being literate and living in a literate society. The literacy rate in the States is very high, however it is not a anymore a very literate society.

Reading all those things you mention is reading, just as watching any video content is watching video. But there's as vast a difference between reading books of merit -- and I would make that a very broad definition; merit exists on many levels in many places in the prose of many writers -- as there is between, say, watching an episode of Fear Factor and Hitchcock's North By Northwest. The latter is enriching, an entertainment but a preeminent example of the art in that entertainment media; the former is just garbage.

Besides which, the tail end of your laundry list is either already served by personal computers or would not be suited to any portable digital reading device.

 

[Lesser Evets]

On Amazon's Kindle book reader, Jobs sees the concept as flawed and claims that people simply don't read any more, suggesting a dedicated Apple book-reader is unlikely in the near future.

...-_-;

I kind of understand where he is coming from, but he isn't phrasing it well. Or maybe it was slaughtered and edited before it appeared here. But, it is very wrong in most ways.

Sure, many book readers probably want the actual thing in their hands and on their shelves. It is material, it is comforting, it is ever present and not attached to electronic quirks and deficiencies. But, the future of information is to get as much info as possible and have it be present on the human body with little effort. Apple should really expand out devices to 'read books', or display texts, thus giving student, professionals, hobbyists, etc, a giant, searchable library right at their fingertips instead of in napsacks weighing 30+ lbs.

The 'air' is a small sign of Jobs-doo-lally. A sideways step toward new tech. This statement is buttressing his insanity, or the appearance of it since he is denying the importance of information display and storage. And wasn't Jobs ALL about information and communication? He is being lulled into the belief that video is the primary future of human information, and though true, it is a half truth - people read. They read books, magazines, internet, comics, instruction pamphlets, etc, etc etc.

 

[vga4life]

Steve is right. I do book jacket cover designs for largest book publisher in the United States. Last year they cut the number of books they produce by 300 books a month due to lack of readership!

People do read books, but the numbers are down quite a bit.

I blame the ridiculous rise in paperback prices, especially trade paperbacks. Prices have gone up something like 100% over the last 3 decades - yes, adjusted for inflation!

(Hardbacks haven't gone up much at all adjusted for inflation.)

High prices are discouraging new readers. (Libraries aren't really a good option for new releases; they can't help much.)

 

[TMay]

...-_-;

I kind of understand where he is coming from, but he isn't phrasing it well. Or maybe it was slaughtered and edited before it appeared here. But, it is very wrong in most ways.

Sure, many book readers probably want the actual thing in their hands and on their shelves. It is material, it is comforting, it is ever present and not attached to electronic quirks and deficiencies. But, the future of information is to get as much info as possible and have it be present on the human body with little effort. Apple should really expand out devices to 'read books', or display texts, thus giving student, professionals, hobbyists, etc, a giant, searchable library right at their fingertips instead of in napsacks weighing 30+ lbs.

The 'air' is a small sign of Jobs-doo-lally. A sideways step toward new tech. This statement is buttressing his insanity, or the appearance of it since he is denying the importance of information display and storage. And wasn't Jobs ALL about information and communication? He is being lulled into the belief that video is the primary future of human information, and though true, it is a half truth - people read. They read books, magazines, internet, comics, instruction pamphlets, etc, etc etc.

I don't like the MBA, but at the same time I'm not the target market. I will say that Steve put his money where his mouth is, and ubiquitous WiFi is what this machine (and the iPhone/iTouch for that matter) is about. I don't like the Kindle either, though again, I'm not the target market.

The issue for myself is whether I would want yet another purpose built device, of limited capability replacing a centuries old paradigm, the book, or whether I would really be better off with a more general purpose tablet supporting rich media and an array of computing tools and applications that I currently use or desire.

As for Steve's statement, I don't know the context of it other than it was a soundbite in an extremely short interview. My supposition is that Steve was referring to recreational readers specifically, and I would find that the Kindle doesn't make much sense for the bulk of that market.

Still, I'm willing to be proved wrong, so I will be quite excited when Amazon has hard numbers of units sold and ebook downloads to proffer.

 

[killerrobot]

@Sanford
I kind of see where you're coming from, but obviously garbage sells in the US, hence most of the music on iTunes. And to say that only prose is worth merit is quite small in definition and excludes a wide variety of text.
As far as pc's having the capability of doing all of this - yes they do, but then I also have to deal with having a computer, finding wifi, carrying extra weight, etc.
My whole point is that Jobs was critical of the Kindle based on a number of books read a year and I was pointing out that this device reaches beyond just books, and Jobs, being the visionary that he supposedly is, should've been able to realize that.

 

[SheriffParker]

What gave you that idea?

Because your response to the phrase: "People don't need to carry more than one book at a time" was "Rubbish"

Why do you need to carry more than one book at a time? Max. 2 that I can think of. People usually don't switch reading material as often as they switch albums on an mp3 player, so the physical book does just fine.

That's all I was saying. People like to have their whole music collection with them because a song or album only takes a few minutes to listen to. I've never met someone who always wanted to have their whole book collection with them at all times.

 

[9secondadidas]

wow

"people don’t read anymore"


That's the most retarded statement I've read today.

 

[JellyFish]

Are you people all stupid or what? Jobs' statement indicates that Apple is preparing to get into the ebook market. He is deflecting attention away from what Apple is doing in secret as he does not want anyone to know what he is up to.

The fact that so many people bought it amuses me.

Wait and see. Jobs already has something up his sleeve for ebooks.

 

[Pigumon]

To paraphrase Mr Jobs.

"It doesn't matter how good or bad the product is, the fact is that people don’t use Macs anymore," he said. "Six percent of the people in the U.S. used one Mac or less last year. The whole conception is flawed at the top because people don’t use Macs anymore."

He's blowing smoke! He dismissed the concept of a digital music player and now it's his #1 selling product in Apple history. He's working on an ebook reader. Something between the Macbook Air and an iPhone.

I don't see why, with the high res iPhone screen, that it's not already an option. Hi-res text. autoscroll. done.

 

[TMay]

won't be an ebook reader

To paraphrase Mr Jobs.

"It doesn't matter how good or bad the product is, the fact is that people don’t use Macs anymore," he said. "Six percent of the people in the U.S. used one Mac or less last year. The whole conception is flawed at the top because people don’t use Macs anymore."

He's blowing smoke! He dismissed the concept of a digital music player and now it's his #1 selling product in Apple history. He's working on an ebook reader. Something between the Macbook Air and an iPhone.

I don't see why, with the high res iPhone screen, that it's not already an option. Hi-res text. autoscroll. done.

There won't be an ebook reader from Apple.

Ever.

There might be an ebook application for the itouch/iphone (third party?), but more than likely, it will have to wait for a larger form factor (tablet).

I believe that we will be reading books on an Apple device in the near future, just not on a dedicated ebook reader. I doubt that anyone here would have a problem with that.

 

[MattInOz]

He said Americans don't read.
So the eBook reader service will be Launched to the rest of the world first.
See how you like them Apples ;-)

 

[Bonte]

US book sales in 2006 = $24.2 billion dollars.

Nobody reads books any more = utter bollocks.

"2006 Book Sales Remain Steady at $10 Billion" Seems that comics and magazines make up for the remaining $14,2 billion dollars or something.
http://www.bookbusinessmag.com/story/story.bsp?sid=47549&var=story

The Kindle is only suitable for for pure text books, that's a small part of overall book sales except for the occasional Harry Potter selling roughly $500 million in books a year. According to wiki "Advertising Age estimated the total value of the Harry Potter brand at roughly $15 billion" to put it all in perspective.

in short, we need comics and magazines on our eBook reader.

 

[Bonte]

To bad the Kindle only works in the US, its coupled to a GSM data plan that is free with the device. Amazon is losing money on the Kindle big time, i don't think Apple wants to be in that position right now.

Its a business model that isn't sustainable in the long run or overseas, starting it up in the first place was a big mistake.

 

[redrabbit]

Amazon is losing money on the Kindle big time

wow! i love posting wild claims with absolutely no proof to back them up! go internetz!

 

[pubwvj]

"People don't read any more?"

Geezzz... Guess I'll have to throw away those great novels I just bought at the (physical) bookstore last night. Damn. And I was so looking forward to them. How am I possibly going to entertain myself now through the dark winter nights?!?

Cheers

-Walter
Sugar Mountain Farm
in the mountains of Vermont
http://SugarMtnFarm.com/blog/
http://HollyGraphicArt.com/
http://NoNAIS.org

 

[X38]

"The model will not extend to cable television, he insisted. “We’re not going to go there with the cable cards,” he said, referring to the relatively open cable industry connectors that are gradually allowing companies like TiVo to replace the standard set-top box."


Sorry Steve, but you are dead wrong on that. Apple TV looks nice as far as it goes, but what I really need is a DVR. Downloads may be okay for movies and sort of okay for pre-recorded shows, but only broadcast works for live events and what I really need is a way to time shift live events.
No DVR, no sale. Apple TV is really close to being great, but just isn't there; please don't let your ego kill it.


On another note, you're wrong about reading & ebooks too. The problem with Kindle isn't that people don't read, it's that we don't want to carry yet another device. I have an ebook reader on my (hacked) iphone that I rather like. All it needs is more books available in that format. Put an ebook reader on the iphone officially, add one to itunes as well, and sell books on the itunes store and I'm sure you will find a market.

 

[X38]

[...]

He's blowing smoke! He dismissed the concept of a digital music player and now it's his #1 selling product in Apple history. He's working on an ebook reader. Something between the Macbook Air and an iPhone.

I don't see why, with the high res iPhone screen, that it's not already an option. Hi-res text. autoscroll. done.

It is already on the iphone. All you have to do is hack your iphone for third party software. I have it on my iphone and like it very much.
It is called Books.app and you can find it at:
http://code.google.com/p/iphoneebooks/
or by putting installer.app on your iphone.

 

[Bonte]

wow! i love posting wild claims with absolutely no proof to back them up! go internetz!

You get free GSM data for life, how on earth are they not losing money on the Kindle?

 

[redrabbit]

You get free GSM data for life, how on earth are they not losing money on the Kindle?

That thing is more expensive than an xbox 360. I think they've got enough profit margin to cover the wireless. But that's what I think. I'm not going to post a "fact" without having any proof to back it up.

 

[jhande]

Damn, I guess I'll just have to throw my ebook collection away. I better tell all of the guys and gals in alt.binaries.e-book.* and #bookz on irc that the cause is lost.....

Get with the program, Steve. Look at what happens everytime a new Harry Potter book comes out. The irc community gears up, chapter by chapter is coordinated and converted into electronic form for release to the hungry hordes.

Illegal? Duh! But like we've seen with music/TV/movies, unsatisfied demand will cause piracy.

Only, with e-books we *don't* have our iPod. The best thing is, IMHO, the Sony Reader (I've got the SRS 500). E-ink, so the battery life is *awesome* [sic].

So, Steve, I agree that the Kindle is not terribly impressive. Anyone can criticize. You have the engineers, and one of the best industrial designers around (although I think there's a bit too much air under the Air, Mr. Ives) - and have a look around usenet and undernet, you might just be surprised.

My .04 (inflation)