He might have felt burned by the higher education market with his Next computer tentatives. Does he read ? No. He pays someone to do it for him.
He just might have something totally different up his sleeve. A vocal reading assistant? aPple (I love this Nate, it's insidious) has done this before and so has Microsoft. I dread this, it takes out all the many artful facets grafted to the reading experience and the mood creation that surrounds reading.
He will not be able to change reading that easy.