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Steve Jobs on MacBook Air, Android and Kindle
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Then you'd have the kindle, more or less. Seems like a better tack would be to simply offer eBooks formated for the iPhone/touch to use.
Form over function. Package over content. Style over usefulness. A$$ over teakettle.
That might be reasonable - if the final design weren't useful. As it is, the final design looks like a winner for a lot of people.
It's true. I see the proof of this every semester in my classes. About 6 years ago, I asked my students how many had read any book over the past three months (this was the first week of classes in the fall). One-third raised their hands (out of a class of 150). They were a representative cross-section of the undergraduates at a major American university known for its engineering and technical fields and regularly listed as one of the top fifty schools in the US.
Yes, you'll find anecdotal evidence indicating otherwise (spouses, parents, significant others, etc.). But the harsh reality is reading as an activity is declining in the US. Most major bookstores now offer DVDs, CDs, games, coffee, baked goods, and knickknacks in addition to books -- and their selection of printed matter is getting slimmer and slimmer.
Aw Steve, why did you have to make that reading statement? Shame on you.
Stir those tea leaves. He's doing a misdirection here. Next year iPhone and iPod Touch will have eBooks capabilities.
"Forty percent of the people in the U.S. read one book or less last year. The whole conception is flawed at the top because people dont read anymore."
Are we supposed to congratulate Steve Jobs for abiding to this trend?
Are we supposed to congratulate Steve Jobs for abiding to this trend?
Jobs in the past has also made negative comments about watching video on a tiny screen, flash-based storage mp3 players... I wouldn't take his words to seriously. If anything, if he says something negative about a product or technology, it usually means they're working on it.
I think I know why. I don't know how much you know about company policies, but Amazon is a publicly-traded company and therefore can't release how well it's sales have been doing until certain quarters or designated points in the year. They're simply not allowed to.
The Kindle IS completely sold out and quite back-ordered, though, so, yes, you can argue "wahhhh, but you don't know how many they made." I think that's irrelevant, so they've clearly sold more than they expected and must be making a profit, regardless. Also, thousands of books seem to be added to their store a week. So I would say evidence points to the kindle doing pretty well.
I guess this confirms we'll see the Apple Reader at next year's MacWorld. Remember when Steve said flash RAM was no good for music players...right before he came out with the 1st Shuffle. Of course Steve could be sincere, but then he'd be as wrong as when he though DVD-RAM would win out over DVD-R. That of course was until he came out with iDVD.
Seriously, I have a Sony eReader. Love it to bits. Great for traveling and reading books you'll read once. ePaper is really cool stuff. Steve knows this. I don't doubt people don't read much anymore. A lot of that is time contraints, but a lot is people don't want to schelp another book around along with their work related stuff. The eBook could actually bring back reading if done right. And by done right I mean an eBook store as easy to use as iTMS.
Seriously, I have a Sony eReader. Love it to bits. Great for traveling and reading books you'll read once. ePaper is really cool stuff. Steve knows this. I don't doubt people don't read much anymore. A lot of that is time contraints, but a lot is people don't want to schelp another book around along with their work related stuff. The eBook could actually bring back reading if done right. And by done right I mean an eBook store as easy to use as iTMS.
Really thought Jobs was more savvy than that.
of course he is. Why are all the comments on here taking him so literally? Doesn't everybody realize he has said things like this before and come back to revitalize the market shortly after the comment??
OK, people are reading fewer things published by the publishing industry. I'm sure that's a clear sign that fewer people are reading.
After all it's not like there's a new way of distributing the written word. Other than THE INTERNET.
It's fine to claim people are reading less but it doesn't seem likely to me, and you certainly need better evidence than a weakening publishing industry.
Stir those tea leaves. He's doing a misdirection here. Next year iPhone and iPod Touch will have eBooks capabilities.
I really do hope so. Love to read and the space saved by not buying hard copies of books would be great (though it would require some reconditioning not having them).
Someone tell JK Rowling that she should make her next book (or chapters) digitally exclusive. That would kick start things.
Asking college students who read a book over the summer is a bad sample set. Students have to read so much during the year that many of them are thankful for a break where they can NOT read as much.
Stir those tea leaves. He's doing a misdirection here. Next year iPhone and iPod Touch will have eBooks capabilities.
You mean last year, right? I'm pretty sure I've had eBooks on my Touch since last year.
Yes, they're following the Microsoft model of making the software and letting other companies design and manufacture the hardware. Apart from working well for Windows on the PC platform, this has been a complete failure for Microsoft.
Same thought i had in mind.
Obviously I do it with an iPod in my ears and my Macbook open for e-mail...
steve is wrong
The important factor would be, what is the demographic of those that still read. I think if he checked into it he might discover that those that buy Macs or are in the tech field in general still read quite a bit.
If 40% of the US read one book or less, then obviously 60% read more than one book. With apologies to the Americans on the forum, it's a fairly well known fact that literacy in the US is in the toilet vs. anywhere else also, so even if the number was higher, it does not necessarily reflect the world average. This is just more US centric thinking from Apple again.
I would bet that the 40% figure is made up of recent immigrants (illegal or otherwise), and the "trailer-trash, TV watchin" community. The University educated upper-middle class types that buy Apples computers would appreciate being able to read books on their iPhones and have said so many times.
Now we know why it isn't happening. Because Steve Jobs doesn't think it's important.
I think lots of people still read. Steve is maybe wrong on this one.
The important factor would be, what is the demographic of those that still read. I think if he checked into it he might discover that those that buy Macs or are in the tech field in general still read quite a bit.
If 40% of the US read one book or less, then obviously 60% read more than one book. With apologies to the Americans on the forum, it's a fairly well known fact that literacy in the US is in the toilet vs. anywhere else also, so even if the number was higher, it does not necessarily reflect the world average. This is just more US centric thinking from Apple again.
I would bet that the 40% figure is made up of recent immigrants (illegal or otherwise), and the "trailer-trash, TV watchin" community. The University educated upper-middle class types that buy Apples computers would appreciate being able to read books on their iPhones and have said so many times.
Now we know why it isn't happening. Because Steve Jobs doesn't think it's important.
Agree
I am very disappointed that Steve Jobs could come up with such an idiotic statement. People do not read books anymore?
Really thought Jobs was more savvy than that.
Just because you (and I) wish it weren't so doesn't mean that Steve isn't telling us an unpleasant truth. As much as I love buying and reading actual, physical books, I realize that I might be in the minority.
However, with the advent of the Web, I find I am reading and writing a lot more than I was before. But it's all online -- no trees are dying and no ink is being spilled. So as much as I have nostalgia for real books, I am happy that people are reading and writing online instead of watching TV which is totally passive.
I wouldn't take Steve's comments to mean that he doesn't like reading or people who read, he just recognizes what the trends in our society are. Of course, you could use his sentiment as a challenge. No one was interested in computers until Apple created the Mac (you may argue that they really started the popularity of computers with the Apple ][). No one was really interested in digital downloads of music until Apple made the iPod. Apple may have just started a wave of interest in movie downloads yesterday. So, the challenge would be: if Apple made a reader, would it cause interest in reading (instead of responding to existing in reading)?
Asking college students who read a book over the summer is a bad sample set. Students have to read so much during the year that many of them are thankful for a break where they can NOT read as much.
Probably 100 of them read a book in the month prior, but didn't want to be a "springbutt, brown noser" in front of their classmates. Have we learned nothing from the error laden public polling of late?