So wait, someone from one company downplays products from another company. Shocked! Shocked, I am.

A minority of people don't read, so Steve ignores the rest. Funny! I'd somehow got the idea that Apple liked marketing to niches.

I talk down Steve Jobs.

Books are like lobsters... the meat isn't easy to get, it isn't spoon-fed to you like, say, television, but once you get in you are richly rewarded.

I will say that people don't read because they didn't grow up doing so. I grew up reading 2-3 books/week, from the point where I learned how to read well through high school. Since hitting college I haven't had my personal library of books easily accessible, but the times that I have sat down to read (Harry Potter, for example), those easily go down as time I really enjoyed. I'm looking forward to graduating and getting a job and moving into a more permanent home in 4-7 months and then being able to bring my library from my parents house and combine that with my wife's. I promise that my kids will never be for lack of reading material.

"the fact is that people don't read anymore"

Just because Stevie is a simpleton, doesn't mean the whole world has to jump onto his bandwagon, which is good for Google as they progress into the wireless sector.

Geesh, a few successful products, and suddenly he knows all, sees all. Some of us read plenty of books, but since I read in bed, a Kindle is not the best thing to fall off the bed when you konk out before you shut off the light. It couldn't be very comfortable either when you roll over it. Give me paper...

Alternatively, if the Kindle could plug into your computer and act like a printer, that would be an ideal paper-saver. Think of newscasters and actors with scripts, engineers with data sheets, etc. these are all transitionally printed and tossed out within a few shot days. A Kindle that operated as a printer would possibly pay for itself in short order if used like this for many careers.

-LS

I can't keep myself reading only e-books on computer.
So many distractions in front of me :
pr0n (lol), death match games, offline games, messengers programs, emails, etc.

Still, I like to read books.
The joy of flipping page by page while immersing the idea of each sentence,
each line is better than reading from computer monitor.
But again, IMHO,
life in 21 century drive people away from spending time to explore ourself.

Jobs as usual is amusing if nothing else...;)

If he followed his own advice he'd stop shipping Macs, since >95% of the people in the world don't use them or want them...;) Even if we use his numbers about "reading"--which are questionable at best--then we can conclude that 60% of the people in the world do read at least one book a year--which in turn means that the majority of people read books. Only Steve Jobs might ever develop the proposition that what a majority of the people enjoy doing isn't relevant...;) (But with the Mac he's just about always had to do that, hasn't he? And still is...;))

Jobs may be entirely correct in stating that 'people don't read anymore, but the question really is, why? There are a couple answers:
1) We don't have time (somewhat true, we're working more now than 10-20 years ago, more people have 2nd jobs)
2) Other forms of entertainment are more enjoyable (Video games are GREAT :D)
3) Other forms of entertainment, while less satisfying, are more convenient than books. You can download movies and play them on a laptop without leaving your home, you can sit around and browse youtube, download music off itunes (or in my case less reputable sites) all without getting up and driving to a store to buy something that you may or may not like, but will have paid for anyway (assuming you can't tell within your store browsing time window)

3) is the kicker. If you view that as the #1 reason why people don't read as much now, then kindle and sony's reader (which I've used and think is really nice) make perfect sense. Even if you don't think it's the #1 reason, but is a decisive reason for some % of the population and that %'s purchases are enough to cover the development costs, kindle makes sense.

I'm sure Jobs has to be aware of this line of thought, so one must view his statements on the matter with the understanding that amazon's book store competes directly with apple, and offers something that apple doesn't yet. You can download a movie off itunes or buy a book, etc. Play a video game on your macbook or buy a book.

The only reason I'd buy an iPhone is for google maps and gmail.

i wonder if Google could just BUY Apple, and shut the man up. :)

What he meant to say was, "don't read, download movies from iTunes. Buy lots of Apple stuff, and Only Apple stuff. It's only useful if we tell you it's useful."

People read plenty, just not the way they used to. Kindle is a great idea that the world wants, ebooks! :), but maybe not in Kindle form. Anyway, this is just FUD from Steve.

As for Android. I'll decide when I see it in the flesh and after a privacy concerns shake down. Do I really want Google indexing my phone?

The only problem with the Kindle is its price. Once it drops to $100, I'll be all over it.

Jobs isn't talking down Kindle, he is lambasting the consumer. People do not reed as much as they used to in terms of books, but we still read a lot, most of it is web pages, pdf's, and non-book stuff. Who has time for a story anymore, besides stay at home mom's or the idle rich.

No the problem with Kindle is that it's design is terrible. This is one seriously ugly and bulky looking tetris-block device, and it irradiates you when you download content. And while it has advantages, like being able to have many many books in it's memory and not wasting plants to make paper and the pollution of the manufacturing and toxicity of the inks and physical delivery, it has a lot of disadvantages, like requiring power to read them, and not being able to share the book (DRM and who would loan their kindle to a friend to let them read a good book?)

As far as android goes, what is this doing for me, only time will tell, but they must be applauded for attempting to create a more open format.

Some bizarre assertions indeed.

For starters, you'd think that out of all companies likely to build something like the Kindle, Amazon would be in the best position to judge if there's a market for it, and Apple would not.

Secondly, I doubt Google gives a flying crap about what Apple does or doesn't do to help them, it's not like they particularly need their help. iPhone integration with Google Maps and Gmail isn't going to go away unless Apple wants iPhone users that care about these features to go away.

Google providing an alternative product and Apple sticking it to Google by removing Google integration from the iPhone can only equal more sales for Google and less for Apple. Oh noes.