Steve Jobs on the "iPod of reading"

[Penforhire]

Someone still prefers LCD to e-ink?! Simaru, several of your positive points are hooey and the Kindle is a step toward answering the rest (all but color display, which is not necessary for pure text).

Dude -- eyestrain! Your points 8 & 9 are total BS. I can read my e-ink display all day with almost as little strain as a proper printed page. Can't say that about LCD screens, including the fancy Dell screen I use at work. Back lighting? That is part of the problem. Black on bright white is NOT better than black on grey.

Flexible font size? E-ink displays are flexible in exactly the same way right down to where the font is too small to use. Oh boy, my LCD can display a smaller font than anyone else here wants to read?

Reading posture? What exactly about an e-ink display makes one curl their back to read?

Geez, seems like you took a tip from Mr. Jobs in stirring the pot...

[JSWolf]

My 19" 1600x1200 LCD monitor can display font sizes that I can read that my eBook reader would make too small to read. And To me, I don't find I get eyestrain looking at my monitor. But what I like with my eBook reader is the ability to be away from the computer.

[DaleDe]

Originally Posted by JerryEF

The second issue one might need to get past is the DRM issue. I do not buy any music that has DRM associated with it because I have various devices I use to listen to music: PC, ipod, my car's hard disk, ... I can honestly said that I do not recall ever re-reading a book. So, for me, that is not an issue, for some people it will be a major issue. The one thing about DRM that does piss me off is the inability to share books. My wife an I have a few authors that we both enjoy. DRM makes sharing books a PITA. I have never sold any used books, so that isn't an issue for me. I have recently started donating some of my older pbooks to local nursing / home facilities. Unfortunately, I will not be able to continue that with DRMed eBooks.

Actually almost every format I have seen permits you and your wife to share eBooks. Most permit 4 to 6 devices to share the same account thus you and you wife can use the same account and share eBooks all the time. The only real exception is DRM on PDF and no portable device can read those anyway so it is a non-issue. donation can be a problem unless you also donate the reader.

Dale

[Steven Lyle Jordan]

Let's not get bogged down on screen preference. As with so many other things, it depends on the user (I, myself, am perfectly happy reading LCDs all day long).

I agree with the assessment that Jobs is simply talking out of his hat, or specifically taking potshots at Amazon, without thinking through what he's said. In fact, I wonder if we've spent too much time here discussing it! I think it was just a dumb offhand remark, not worthy of losing sleep over.

If Jobs doesn't want to get into digital reading, that's certainly his prerogative. I think he'll be missing a big opportunity. But then, I don't run Apple.

[KatrinaCardway]

Oddly enough, we are reading his pronouncement that reading is dead.[/QUOTE]
I would be willing to bet that more time is spent reading email on the iPhone than watching TV or actually talking.

[KatrinaCardway]

Let's just take Job's statement at face value: we will agree that there isn't much market for books or book related technology.

Then let's do the math:

• The US population is about 300 million people.
• If 57% of them read 1 book a year then there is (at the very least) a 171 million unit market.
• The average book price is $18.00
• That translates to something like a $3 Billion market. . .

Most people would consider that a pretty good market!

[yvanleterrible]

Originally Posted by KatrinaCardway

Let's just take Job's statement at face value: we will agree that there isn't much market for books or book related technology.

Then let's do the math:

• The US population is about 300 million people.
• If 57% of them read 1 book a year then there is (at the very least) a 171 million unit market.
• The average book price is $18.00
• That translates to something like a $3 Billion market. . .

Most people would consider that a pretty good market!

Not enough for aPple. They earn that just farting!

[hidari]

Originally Posted by Adrian_Werner

I think that for all the hype with iphone N95 is actualy selling more. Just not in US( where Nokia always struggled), but un UK alone Nokia has sold over 1mln units in five months while iphone in UK stuggles (despite the hype proclaiming "huge lines" in reality stores were empty on launch day)

Well Said. I know quite a few people with the N95. A great phone and just as good as the iphone but without the HYPE that Jobs always generates from The Macheads waiting for his "Prophetic" announcements each year.

Well Done NOKIA...

[Penforhire]

But Katrina, most of those are romance novels!

My wife has an expensive habit of reading new best-sellers. But when she is done at least two other people, sometimes more, read that same p-book before it lands on our shelves to, uh, roost.

[TheJohnNewton]

Obviously what Mr. Jobs meant was, we don't currently have an ebook reader available or in the works so I need to downplay their importance. Perhaps he really does not believe the market is currently there but he's not exactly an un-biased source of news on tech products. Even if he secretly thinks the Kindle (or insert your favorite ereader here) is the greatest thing ever do you think he would say it? No he'd secretly develop his own but put it in a "cool" package and slap a huge price on it.

[radleyp]

Check this out:

http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/0...erland&emc=rss

It's the New York Times interview with Jobs and it gives you the FULL quote from Jobs which includes this: "forty percent of people in the U.S. read one book or less last year." If we do consider ourselves readers, then we must read carefully. This part of the quote makes it clear to me what point he was making.
He was talking about reading books and various commenters on the quote point out that that number was not taken out of thin air.

[ashalan]

A bloated statement of one of the most bloated and overrated man of our days ...

[radleyp]

What exactly are you referring to? Do you think Jobs invented the 40% figure?

[mlbspike]

Had to roll my eyes when I heard the quote.
Went to economagic, to actually look at numbers.
Check out the numbers (and they are just for the retail stores).
Take the chart back as far as you want ... the claim that people don't read "any more", is ludicrous. He's a talented huckster, but keep in mind ... he claimed with seeming conviction, earlier, that no one was interested in carrying around video in an ipod.

http://www.economagic.com/em-cgi/pdf.exe/cenret/nrt39

If you can't link directly, you may need to go to economagic, and negotiate thru yourself ... very easy to use.
Mike

[mlbspike]

If I'm reading the numbers correctly from economagic (2005 is the latest I can see #'s for free), it was near $17 billion for the year, sales for retail bookstores (and I have think Amazon would add a few Bills of its own).
Mike