Steve Jobs on MacBook Air, Android and Kindle

[tangledweb16]

I spend enough time looking at digital screens all day. I'll never convince myself that curling up on the couch with some electronic book displaying gadget is better than having a tangible book in my hands. There's something satisfying about physically turning a page.

Maybe I'm just old . . . :/

No...I'm barely 17 and I have used a Kindle, and I greatly prefer a real book, not to mention real books are cheaper.

As far as the MBA goes...I don't really understand what they are trying to do with it. Seems like they should have either made it super small or made it better and replaced the Macbook with it.

 

[xrayzed]

US book sales in 2006 = $24.2 billion dollars.

Nobody reads books any more = utter bollocks.

 

[Kar98]

Not really.

Folks may not like it, but there's a great deal of truth to what he said (please remember that Amazon is a retailer of books--they're sucking up market from large chains and smaller books). People in the publishing industry has voiced concerns like his for quite some time.

So what's Amazon gotta do with the nonsensical claim that "people don't read anymore"?

 

[Kar98]

How many books were sold last year?

"New York, NY, May 22, 2007: The Association of American Publishers (AAP) has today released its annual estimate of total book sales in the United States. The report, which uses data from the Bureau of the Census as well as sales data from eighty-one publishers inclusive of all major book publishing media market holders, estimates that U.S. publishers had net sales of $24.2 billion in 2006.

"Trade sales of adult and juvenile books grew 2.9 percent to $8.3 billion, a compound growth rate of 3.7 percent per year since 2002. The strongest growth in this category came from adult paperback books whose sales rose 8.5 percent on last year to a total of $2.3 billion. Adult hardbound books also had a strong year growing by 4.1 percent to $2.6 billion."

"Mass market paperbacks saw growth of 4.6 percent in 2006 reaching $1.1 billion."

 

[Kar98]

A huge portable personal library is the correct model for music, it is not for books. Who needs to carry around more than one book at a time.

Rubbish
Who knows what mood strikes me. Seriously, I read everywhere, on the front porch, on the crapper, at the coffee shop, in bed, waiting in line, riding public transportation...

A book can last from days to weeks, so just carry the book,

My book reader fits into the pockets of my jeans and weighs less than a bar of soap. The book re-opens where I last left it, I can copy text, read in the dark, I can grab a bunch of books and won't be left without anything to read should the first one turn out to suck.

The book reader also does phone calls and has a GPS navigation built in, and you can even browse the internet with it or send text messages. Would to music and video too, if I cared for that. Can you say a truly personal computer?

 

[SheriffParker]

I've seen people read before. What is this guy talking about?

 

[SheriffParker]

Rubbish
Who knows what mood strikes me. Seriously, I read everywhere, on the front porch, on the crapper, at the coffee shop, in bed, waiting in line, riding public transportation...

So you seriously switch books every 5 minutes or so the way people switch songs on their iPod?

 

[Kar98]

I think what he meant to say was, "Not ENOUGH people read to justify INVESTING TENS OF MILLIONS OR MORE on a niche device."

Audio books are niche market. Yet they are sold through iTunes. You know, since you brought up the "investing tens of millions" argument, why not sell e-books that can be read through the iTunes store? I would love that and now that the iPod touch has actually become a bit more useful, I might even buy one. All the infrastructure and the devices are in freaking place!

 

[Kar98]

So you seriously switch books every 5 minutes or so the way people switch songs on their iPod?

What gave you that idea?

 

[MattInOz]

Audio books are niche market. Yet they are sold through iTunes. You know, since you brought up the "investing tens of millions" argument, why not sell e-books that can be read through the iTunes store? I would love that and now that the iPod touch has actually become a bit more useful, I might even buy one. All the infrastructure and the devices are in freaking place!

Um... Audio Books are sold to Apple by a single company, similar to a record company, they have already sorted out all the copyright issues and sell the product by what ever retail channel they choose.

If there are companies selling eBooks with the same assurance then why not sell them via iTunes. Not sure there is, that would be the sticking point.

 

[MrCrowbar]

Here's how I would like a tablet Mac. Compact enough for the coat pocket, just powerful enough for Leopard:

(Mockup)

Synced to a big Mac (no pun intended), you could use it as a large multitouch trackpad, display widgets or to do remote desktop.

 

[sishaw]

Here's how I would like a tablet Mac. Compact enough for the coat pocket, just powerful enough for Leopard:

(Mockup)

Ooh, snazzy. I like it!

 

[ktbubster]

that is exactly what I was talking about in my previous post a few pages back. THAT would be great. I think if it were something like that AND itunes added textbooks from big universities at itunes U and ebooks as well... that would be huge. Not to mention newspapers and magazines ... let you do the puzzle stuff on there to pass time.

Add some 3G and wifi... who knows what else and you have a HUGE winner. Make it affordable enough for a student... that would be HUGE HUGE HUGE. I'd must rather have my textbooks and reading books in something like that that i could also do homework and take notes on. (and highlight directly from the text!)

 

[joeshell383]

As far as the MBA goes...I don't really understand what they are trying to do with it. Seems like they should have either made it super small or made it better and replaced the Macbook with it.

I believe that AT SOME POINT the Air will be merged with the MB and will be offered in two or more screen sizes, with the Pro becoming more upgradeable and powerful than ever.

2 More Things about the direction of the Air:

1) It makes you more dependent on them for everything:

iTunes for movies, songs,
Time Capsule for additional storage and backup
iPod/iPhone for content on the go
.Mac for quick storage/sharing

2) It will advance technology:

- The iMac dropped ADB and the Floppy
- Apple has dropped the modem, which is still included on most PC laptops
- By dropping Firewire and limiting USB to 1 port, they are setting up the world (again), to move forward...

All devices will go wireless (printers, scanners, mice, keyboards, HDD, digital cameras, iPod/iPhone, etc.) and software will be downloaded from the internet and archived on your Time Capsule.

I like the tech advances this will bring (if they stick with it, since sales will be poor after the initial rush without price cuts, but they had REALLY BE CAREFUL ABOUT PRICE CUTS), but I don't like the lock in to Apple, especially with there being NO legal video alternative to the iTunes on the Mac/iPod/iPhone for downloads because ALL other services use WM.

I will say this, and I'm not one to make predictions, especially after Thread 500, but the Apple TV "Take 2" will MOST LIKELY (not any guarantee) flop. Steve will have to go to "Take 3". Here's why: there is no need for anyone to purchase ATV as is. If someone has digital cable they can ALREADY rent movies for 24 hours for 3.99, with no download fuss necessary. Sure you can't transfer it to your iPod/iPhone, but most people want to watch movies in their living room. The TV shows will never take off without a subscription service. Reasons go on and on. We'll see.

 

[uv23]

What an idiotic statement. Very unfortunate coming from Steve Jobs. Everyone in my circle of friends read plenty, and we're hardly bookish intellectuals.

 

[winterspan]

People read more diverse material

I am going to ignore that portion Of society that doesnt read much of anything. For everyone else, I would posit that they tend to read MORE,
And the only reason that paper book sales are down is the enormous influence of the internet/"new media". I know ive certainly reduced the amount of books ive read in the past few years as a result of blogs, news websites, magazine ebsites, wikipedia, ebooks, etc, and i doubt im alone either. Because of this trend i can definitely see the demand for an eink reader in that it will be able to carry not just traditional books, but all these new forms of media as well... Thoughts?

 

[cfw123]

Kindle for non-readers

Good thing that Jeff Bezos didn't hear Jobs say

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:

"It doesn't matter how good or bad the product is, the fact is that people don’t read anymore," he said. "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 don’t read anymore."

before he founded Amazon.com -- the biggest book store in the world.

I have way too many books on over-full shelves, and bought my Kindle the moment it was announced, finally getting it on Dec. 4th. I absolutely love it, and it goes whereever I go -- to the john, to bed where it's the only "book" I have ever found I could read in bed, to restaurants, to stores where my wife leaves me in the car to go in for "just a short time". I have gotten more reading done in a single day since my Kindle came than I could have gotten done in a month before. I currently have 72 books on it, and anticipate having many many more eventually -- I like to read in multiple books at a time.

And comments like Jobs made are exactly what is causing our terrible loss of reading skills in our schools. Why should our students learn to read when Jobs obviously cannot -- at least he can't read book sales statistics.

Charles Wilkes, San Jose, Calif.

 

[redrabbit]

If people want a magical mac tablet that is iphone-like touchscreen and is powerful enough to run OS X, and seeing as the MBA was $1800, how much do you people honestly expect it to cost? Not $400, that's for sure.

 

[matticus008]

By the same logic there's no reason to make the iPod because 75% of people go to one or fewer symphonic performances a year.

If you're talking about a product that only replicates the sense of being at the symphony, then yeah, it would be a strange market to go after.

Obviously it's not that people don't engage in written communication--it's just that a dedicated 'eBook device' isn't the next Big Thing. Entertainment reading was an $8 billion industry according that other post. Of those, many are like our English lit friend earlier in the thread--into literature. Those people aren't going to replace their hardcover, leatherbound books with a Kindle or anything like it.

Literature will remain an experience with text and paper and the crinkling of book spines. That's why nice "shelf" sets exist and are so expensive and profitable for publishers. A good book is like a fine formal place setting. An eBook is plastic cutlery and a paper plate. They both get the job done, but the meal is enhanced by its sensual experience.

An eBook reader really only potentially replaces the disposable entertainment read--the newest Stephen King or Danielle Steel or Janet Evanovich. Most people read short stories and Internet content, not books. Most people also wouldn't buy a dedicated device to replace those books. There certainly is a market for people who do read the stuff that is constantly churned out, but it's not a large one.

eBook software is really more or less obviated by a device that can display PDFs in an attractive and easy manner. Something like a Kindle won't revolutionize books the way proponents of eBooks 10 years ago thought. Even if it's a great product (and it is), it's kind of like microfiche and laserdisc--an evolutionary dead end. It doesn't have the institutional support that has kept microfiche alive, either.

People don't read anymore? I've been thinking for awhile Steve has lost it, but that seals it up for me. People may not read books as much as they used to, but I read more now than I ever have when you count school textbooks, various news papers (both print and online), and then general websites.

That's not the kind of reading implied...none of that describes what a Kindle does. People don't read books (as an activity) that much. People read (as a mechanism for inputting information) all day, but that's not the sense of the word in the interview.

It increasingly looks like the popular fiction writers would do better releasing books in chapters on a subscription-service blog to mesh better with modern lifestyles, rather than publishing a couple books each year.

 

[PVguy]

people don't read anymore?

Snort!

What I will say is that when I read a book, it is because I don't want to read a computer screen. Books are different. I read them for different purposes. Out under the tree, lounging on the beach, where ever. When I do that, I do not want to fool with batteries, screens you can't read in bright light, or getting sand out of a USB port or keyboard.

As Isaac Asimov pointed out years ago, it's going to be really hard to displace the paperback.

Now using a Kindle or Laptop to hold tech manuals for repair work, or research makes sense. But recreational reading? No.

 

[redrabbit]

Don't knock it until you try it.

 

[tny]

Entertainment reading was an $8 billion industry according that other post. Of those, many are like our English lit friend earlier in the thread--into literature. Those people aren't going to replace their hardcover, leatherbound books with a Kindle or anything like it.

An eBook reader really only potentially replaces the disposable entertainment read--the newest Stephen King or Danielle Steel or Janet Evanovich. Most people read short stories and Internet content, not books. Most people also wouldn't buy a dedicated device to replace those books. People don't read books (as an activity) that much.

It increasingly looks like the popular fiction writers would do better releasing books in chapters on a subscription-service blog to mesh better with modern lifestyles, rather than publishing a couple books each year.

Actually, no.

I buy an average of one iTunes album a week, and an average of two books a week. Most of the books I buy are "substantial" - literature, history, scholarship, etc. I also own a Sony Reader. I'd use the Sony Reader a great deal more if the book prices were more in line with reality (and I've worked in publishing, so I know how much of the cost of a book is editorial production, which is not saved by the use of an e-reader, and how much of the cost is due to paper, printing, and distribution) and there were a decent selection (the average Borders has at least an order of magnitude more books, and the overall quality of the selection is better - let alone a good, large independent bookstore). Ideally I'd like to have electronic copies and paper copies of the same books, so I could carry the Reader around and continue where I left off in the paper copy while in a waiting room, etc.

I use a lot of my library for reference. In the average day, I'll refer to at least 5 books, and actually read a third of a book or so. Add in purely electronic books (e.g., Gutenberg), and there are of course some reference works that I never *read* in any continuous sense, that comes out about right.

So while I'll never stop buying dead-tree books (like I have all but stopped buying CDs), there's definitely a place for an e-reader in my practices, at least. I'm probably far down the long tail of the iTunes consumer, but I see enough people browsing around at bookstores to know that Jobs' claim that nobody reads is ignorant Silicon Valley prejudice. I'm sure that nobody he knows reads - but then, Jobs was never known as a great intellectual, was he? Hell of a salesmen, and knows design talent better than nearly anyone else, but Bertram Russell he's not. If I needed a CEO for my entertainment or hardware company, I'd call Jobs. If I needed a Chancellor for a University, he most certainly would not be on my short list.

 

[DukeofAnkh]

For Kindle, sounds like an interesting idea. Does anybody know if it can also read aloud the books? Good for people who have a hard time reading (blind, young kids or adults just learning how to read). This would be cool on iPods & the iPhone. I know iPods have a note feature, but it would be cool if you can add books to it, too. A program I've found for cataloging books is at books.aetherial.net. The author of the program wants to add a feature where it can also download the actual texts of books and also to sync it to iPods. Looks interesting. <snip>

This site will convert large text files to ipod notes readable chunks. It's limited by the fact that ipods can only store up to 4 MB (I think... it was something like that, anyway) of notes. If you google "Text to mp3" there are a bunch of hits that will make audiobooks out of your ebooks, though I suspect they all use those silly computer voices. (I haven't actually done this second one, since I'm happy just downloading audiobooks from Gutenberg

Would it really be so hard for Apple to make the notes feature on ipods more versatile? I would love to be able to properly read ebooks on my ipod, the small screen doesn't bother me and it would be so much more convenient than carrying a book around (or resorting to audiobooks because a book won't fit in my bag that day). Actually, I don't like carrying books around at all. I love my books and hate to see them damaged. I'm one of those anal people that doesn't bend the spines on my paper backs. Which is beside the point.

It would also be nice if notes didn't jump back to Now Playing within 5 seconds of me taking my finger of the scroll wheel. I mean, c'mon, it takes more than 5 seconds to read a full screen of the smallest ipod text. AND after it's jumped to now playing, Menuing back to the note loses your place. WTF is up with that? I don't want to have to be re-finding my place every time I forget to scroll continuously. And if using linked files the site above makes, it jumps back to the start of the FIRST file you opened, which is even worse since who pays attention to how many "pages" they turn?

It's not like it would be hard to fix any of that, either, Steve.

A huge portable personal library is the correct model for music, it is not for books. Who needs to carry around more than one book at a time. A song lasts 5 min, so the portability of hundreds of songs needs a solution. A book can last from days to weeks, so just carry the book, its not a problem that needs solving (certainly not in a dedicated device). The displays use wonderful technology, they can be used for all sorts of great stuff, but having 1000 books in my pocket is not useful.

How about something smaller and more durable than a book? And there are plenty of situations (long flights, about to finish current book) when it'd be great to carry extra books around without the extra space/weight.

Here's how I would like a tablet Mac. Compact enough for the coat pocket, just powerful enough for Leopard:

(Mockup)

<images snipped>

Synced to a big Mac (no pun intended), you could use it as a large multitouch trackpad, display widgets or to do remote desktop.

I like that. Especially if you could use it for most things you use in leopard (I'm not expecting high end apps to work, but maybe with the capabilities of the Air).

 

[maokh]

I hate books. I don't read them. Yes, im a published author, go figure. I'm glad Steve Jobs had the nerve to say it.

 

[zen]

Sorry Steve, but your comments about reading are just cretinous. I suspect the answer is that HE doesn't read, therefore why should anyone else?