Steve Jobs talks MacBook Air, China Mobile, Amazon Kindle, more

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  • Reply 21 of 108
    Hey Steve, there's these things called "web sites", "blogs", "magazines", and "newspapers" that people seem to read a lot! Since the Kindle auto-delivers content wirelessly (from hundreds of those sources), you've always got a ton of stuff to read all day long. Unlike the iPhone, which requires the user hook up to and navigate through the internet one site at a time on a much smaller screen. They are both flawed in their own way, but don't knock it - there's faster access to the content I enjoy reading on the Kindle (newspapers, magazines, and blogs), and it's much easier to read.



    I'm a little disappointed that Steve sees the present and future Mac faithful as part of the non-reading public or maybe as a bunch of youtube idiots. We're really not, most of us read quite a bit every day, even if some choose not to read books.



    EDIT: Of course with the Kindle, you have to select your sources since the best do actually cost money.
  • Reply 22 of 108
    amorphamorph Posts: 7,112member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by pixelcruncher View Post


    I'm a little disappointed that Steve sees the present and future Mac faithful as part of the non-reading public or maybe as a bunch of youtube idiots. We're really not, most of us read quite a bit every day, even if some choose not to read books.



    Which is why Steve is marketing a $400 handheld that browses the web and pooh-poohing a $400 handheld that reads books. It's not that people don't read at all.



    What Steve didn't say, perhaps because it's too obvious, is that expecting people to pay a lot of money up front for a downgrade in convenience and presentation is completely insane. Why not read PDFs on an iPhone? At least the iPhone will preserve the font and layout of the original manuscript, and you can print or move the PDF around and display it on other machines if you need to. Or you could just... read a book.
  • Reply 23 of 108
    If the Kindle does not succeed, the real reason would be because people don't want to carry around yet one more device. The trend is going in the other direction. People used to carry a cell phone and a palm pilot and a laptop and a walkman and .... Now I carry a Treo that can do all of the above, including eBooks. If I was given a Kindle for free, would I carry it around with me? No, but I have my all-in-one device with me, so if a book was on there I would have it with me if I ever had time to read. Whether or not I read isn't the issue, convenience is the issue, for convenience is what determines how much I read.
  • Reply 24 of 108
    jeffdmjeffdm Posts: 12,951member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by desarc View Post


    NOBODY is going to spend $400 so that they can spend MORE money on a book.



    The prices are lower than the paper book variants. I think part of the problem is that it's not enough cheaper.
  • Reply 25 of 108
    jeffdmjeffdm Posts: 12,951member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by kkerst View Post


    If people don't read anymore, why is Amazon, Barne's and Noble, Walden Books and other bookstores thriving? You'd think they'd be 40% as big as they are if Stevo were right. I think he kinda did the "insert foot into mouth" routine he's famous for.



    Books are a big industry, the number I saw for a post-2000 year was that there was more money spent on books than music and movies combined. I think that means that it's a smaller group of people spending a lot more per person.



    The argument doesn't mention magazines and newspapers, which I think Kindle delivers too.
  • Reply 26 of 108
    Fine Steve,



    I and hundreds of thousands of others (maybe millions around the world) will just have to buy our pdf/txt (and the rest) ereaders, needed to read and reference our extensive collection of digital books, off some other brand with infinitely more clunky interfaces such as sony etc.





    ;-(.



    p.s. if you ever change you mind and please include spotlight integration
  • Reply 27 of 108
    jeffdmjeffdm Posts: 12,951member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by bryand View Post


    I'm surprised to hear Jobs promoting illiteracy. Its shameful if most Americans aren't reading, but I'm pretty sure that Amazon sells a lot of books, so they see a market for it. Where I think that they're going to have trouble is getting people to pay $400 for a device that helps them read books.



    There is a big difference between promoting illiteracy and accepting that people don't read many books. There's a difference between saying people can't read and choose not to read a particular format of literature.



    Quote:

    You need to save a lot of money on print books before the $400 starts to make sense. If a books copyright has expired, you an usually pick up a paperback copy for about $5 and if the copyright is still valid, then even an ebook is going to cost you money, so it could take a very long time to pay off the $400 cost.



    If it's out of copyright, it's probably on Project Gutenberg for free.
  • Reply 28 of 108
    frank777frank777 Posts: 5,839member
    I am happy to hear that Apple is working on an eBook concept of their own.



    Of course, I suspected as much, since content creation and distribution are big parts of Apple's customer base. However, it's nice to have it confirmed from the very top.



    Those who don't get this from Jobs' comments should understand that misdirection is one of his foremost strategies. Nobody needed a PDA until the iPod Touch was ready, there was no subnotebook market until the Air was released. Oh yes, and all flash players were junk until the Nano was ready.



    Bring on the iPod Reader, the sooner the better.
  • Reply 29 of 108
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Frank777 View Post


    I am happy to hear that Apple is working on an eBook concept of their own.



    Of course, I suspected as much, since content creation and distribution are big parts of Apple's customer base. However, it's nice to have it confirmed from the very top.



    Those who don't get this from Jobs' comments should understand that misdirection is one of his foremost strategies. Nobody needed a PDA until the iPod Touch was ready, there was no subnotebook market until the Air was released. Oh yes, and all flash players were junk until the Nano was ready.



    Bring on the iPod Reader, the sooner the better.







    He also said last year that 'games weren't important' when I wanted to buy a $4,200 Mac Pro but the graphics card options were lacking, so instead I got a $2,000 iMac and kept my PC for games. It's odd to hear a computer company say games aren't important when computers got their jump start in the 90s by kids who wanted to play games. Otherwise we'd all still be using a 386 16MHz to do nothing but type up our homework. Remember 'Doom'? It spurred the run for 486s, and then Pentiums. Otherwise, all the average user needed back then was an electronic typewriter and a dumb terminal for text email. Even today, the only reason Vista could go to 3D graphics is because consumers had already created a 3D-card market to play games.
  • Reply 30 of 108
    palegolaspalegolas Posts: 1,361member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by AppleInsider View Post


    Meanwhile, Jobs also weighed in on other recent industry developments, like Amazon's new $400 Kindle eBook reader, which he believes is destine for failure. "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."



    Ok, I too think the Kindle is destined for failure. BUT, I believe books like Harry Potter show that the big gray mass read. And then students read, a LOT. And then, why not look at books like music?

    Q- How do we get people to listen to more music?

    A- We give them a great model that makes it easy to access and discover great music. The iPod/iTunes.

    Apple accelerated the music industry this way, and it certainly made me listen a lot more to music. The people at Kindle should adopt this model... and hire a dedicated designer.



    Steve's short comment sounds like he thinks reading is doomed anyway, so why help saving a sinking ship? That is just a very sad stance..
  • Reply 31 of 108
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by kkerst View Post


    If people don't read anymore, why is Amazon, Barne's and Noble, Walden Books and other bookstores thriving? You'd think they'd be 40% as big as they are if Stevo were right. I think he kinda did the "insert foot into mouth" routine he's famous for.



    Amazon started with books. Amazon is huge because they sell EVERYTHING.
  • Reply 32 of 108
    Jobs should be very wary about spouting off percentages. Once could easily look at the Apple market and conclude that because they have a small percentage of the market share that they are unsuccessful or will fail.



    The written word whether it be read from a paperback books or on a computer screen (i.e. the Kindle) will never cease.



    The Kindle may very well fail but it will not be due to percentages of people who read books. It most likely will be the design/price/functionality of the product.



    If they were smart, they'd figure a way to drop the Kindle to $99 and then you'd see a huge surge in ebook reading. Amazon should be smart enough to know that the money is in the subscriptions - not the hardware.
  • Reply 33 of 108
    melgrossmelgross Posts: 33,510member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by SpamSandwich View Post


    It's also an MP3 player, even though that's not obvious.



    I agree that it will fail. With people talking about how expensive Apple's products are, this one makes them look inexpensive.



    Even with the advantages of being able to download books straight to the device, it's far too expensive. It's also far too big for something that's basically a one trick pony.



    The fact that it plays MP3's is meaningless. Who is going to abandon their iPods for a monstrosity like this? No one.



    If the price came down to $149, and they lost that keyboard for a touch interface with just a very few keys so as to simplify and shrink the product, it just MIGHT become interesting to any other than early adopters.



    But with people complaining that iTunes movies cost too much to buy, and too much to rent, the cost of e-books is a joke.



    Look at this typical pricing:



    http://www.mobipocket.com/en/HomePag...sp?Language=EN



    They have GOT to be kidding!
  • Reply 34 of 108
    palegolaspalegolas Posts: 1,361member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Frank777 View Post


    ... Those who don't get this from Jobs' comments should understand that misdirection is one of his foremost strategies...



    Yeah that's like the first thing I came to think of too... but it's really sad though to hear anyone talk about reading like this. It's so sad so it overcame my initial feeling of misdirection.. perhaps this way he REALLY mislead me..

    I guess it would be possible to combine a great screen and an e-book screen.
  • Reply 35 of 108
    jeffdmjeffdm Posts: 12,951member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by fixmdude View Post


    He also said last year that 'games weren't important' when I wanted to buy a $4,200 Mac Pro but the graphics card options were lacking



    Why would you want to buy the most expensive version of the Mac Pro? What did you do, throw in the Quadro to get that number? You're certainly not going to get an Octo + similar quadro for the same price in PC land.



    The base cost for a decent Mac Pro has changed too. Right now, you can do pretty well with the $2300 single 2.8GHz quad core version + the 8800 for a total of $2500.
  • Reply 36 of 108
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Frank777 View Post


    I am happy to hear that Apple is working on an eBook concept of their own.



    Of course, I suspected as much, since content creation and distribution are big parts of Apple's customer base. However, it's nice to have it confirmed from the very top.



    Those who don't get this from Jobs' comments should understand that misdirection is one of his foremost strategies. Nobody needed a PDA until the iPod Touch was ready, there was no subnotebook market until the Air was released. Oh yes, and all flash players were junk until the Nano was ready.



    Bring on the iPod Reader, the sooner the better.



    Hope so, ;-).



    Also, renting stuff was just stupid in general till yesterday! LOL!.
  • Reply 37 of 108
    tundraboytundraboy Posts: 1,884member
    Apple is wise to stay away from any cable card business. I haven't met a person who doesn't hate his/her cable carrier for being money-grubbing price-hike-crazy bastards. Apple doesn't need that association.



    Instead, with video, music and podcasts, I'm hoping that the whole iTunes infrastructure grows into an alternative source of information and entertainment that can rival cable and satellite tv. Then content makers will be knocking on iTunes' door to let them in on the party.
  • Reply 38 of 108
    amorphamorph Posts: 7,112member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by silver99 View Post


    If they were smart, they'd figure a way to drop the Kindle to $99 and then you'd see a huge surge in ebook reading. Amazon should be smart enough to know that the money is in the subscriptions - not the hardware.



    I doubt it. It's still one more clunky gadget, it's still ergonomically inferior to a book in several important respects, the display still looks like crap, and there are all these artificial limitations that pretty much negate the advantage of having the content in digital form. I don't think they'd have many takers if they gave the thing away.



    Mostly, the Kindle is Jeff Bezos decide that it would be really nice if people bought e-books so that he could save tons of money storing and shipping books. That was the design goal. Unfortunately for him, any consumer product that is not designed first and foremost for the consumer has the odds stacked against it.



    Now, if Apple simply added a nice PDF reader with markup and search capability to the iPhone and iPod touch, it would work on a device that people already have, it would be genuinely portable, and the high-resolution color screen could do a much better job of reproducing not just the text, but the book. That could change the game.
  • Reply 39 of 108
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Amorph View Post


    Now, if Apple simply added a nice PDF reader with markup and search capability to the iPhone and iPod touch, it would work on a device that people already have, it would be genuinely portable, and the high-resolution color screen could do a much better job of reproducing not just the text, but the book. That could change the game.



    afraid you've completely missed the point of the ereader! Perhaps you haven't seen one.



    It's all about the screen.
  • Reply 40 of 108
    melgrossmelgross Posts: 33,510member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by JeffDM View Post


    The prices are lower than the paper book variants. I think part of the problem is that it's not enough cheaper.





    They're not cheaper at all.



    The price for a new bestseller should be $4.99, and once it goes softcover, the price should drop to $2.99.



    Prices have to be low enought for peope to pick them up on a whim.



    With those prices, both publisher and writers will still get the same amount of money they get with paper editions. I checked.
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