The following excerpt is from a current article from The New Yorker on the future of books. The full text can be read here. For Jobs, the traditional form of the book (paper) is apparently already a thing of the past. The future of reading is electronic, and Jobs hopes the iPad will supplant the Kindle as the reading gadget of choice for today's readers. The text in italics sums up his view, and backs it up with some sobering statistics.
At the Yerba Buena Center, it took a while for Jobs to mention books, and when he did he said that “Amazon has done a great job” with its Kindle. “We’re going to stand on their shoulders and go a little bit farther.” It would probably have been more accurate to say that Jobs planned to stand on Amazon’s neck and press down hard, with publishers applauding. The decision to enter publishing was a reversal for Jobs, who two years ago said that the book business was unsalvageable. “It doesn’t matter how good or bad the product is, the fact is that people don’t read anymore,” he said. “Forty per cent of the people in the U.S. read one book or less last year.” But if reading books was low on the list of things that the iPad could do, it was nonetheless on the list, which meant that Amazon had become a competitor. “There’s a lot of heat between Apple and Amazon and Google,” an adviser to Jobs said. “Steve expresses contempt for everyone—unless he’s controlling them.” An Apple insider said, “He thinks Amazon is stupid, and made a terrible mistake insisting that books should be priced at $9.99.”
Read more: http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2010/04/26/100426fa_fact_auletta?printable=true#ixzz0lw0KP9BR
Read more: http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2010/04/26/100426fa_fact_auletta?printable=true#ixzz0lw0KP9BR
3 comments:
I think the sad thing is that people just don't read anymore. I don't really concern myself with the medium, be it a physical book or something like a kindle or ipad, just the fact that technology, in one respect, has killed the idea of using ones brain for something a bit more involved than t.v. People are turning into absolute followers. They no longer research or attempt to expand their horizons via information and education, they lazily pick a contemporary fad and mindlessly follow it. If the kindle or ipad makes reading more accessible and increases it as a past time, I am all for it. I think it will. And hopefully it will bankrupt a few of the publishers of textbooks, who run an absolute racket on college students...
I wonder if they take into account that since our society is becoming more and more fast paced and we demand information "instantly" so often that maybe we still read just as much just in different mediums? I personally probably spend a huge chuck of my day reading but normally it is science and technology articles where I simply don't feel I have much time to sit around and read a book off and on for a week. My issue with the iPad is that it is produced by a company that is completely concenred with taking as much money from the consumer as possible, just like others (Microsoft, Google, etc), yet unlike those other companies they cover it up in a cute little commercial package that makes their buyers feel like they are part of a community and such, it's a great marketing direction, just seems deceptive to me. Steve jobs, you are the most evil of geniuses, enjoy your bed made of $100 dollar bills. :]
Post a Comment