Today he had a wide range of observations on the industry, including the Amazon Kindle book reader, which he said would go nowhere largely because Americans have stopped reading. “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.”
Lynch writes, “If you’re at all familiar with Jobs, that comment is a dead giveaway that Apple has an eBook reader in the pipeline. In the past, Jobs has made disparaging comments about competitor’s products as a smoke-screen to try and hide what Apple was busily working on behind the scenes.”
“Mark my words, if Jobs denigrates a market segment or a competitor’s product then there’s a good chance that Apple is cooking up something sweet and delicious in its kitchen, and you can bet that Jobs is the head chef in charge of it all,” Lynch writes.
“As we all know, Macbooks have replaced the old ‘iBook’ laptops that Apple used to sell. Hmmm…so it’s quite interesting that the word ‘iBook’ is now free for Apple to use as the name of their eBook reader,” Lynch writes. “A coincidence? I doubt it very much.”
Much more in the full article, including Lynch’s discussion of an Apple eBook reader software release for iPod and iPhone, here.
Yeah, it’s called the iPod Touch or iPhone. All you will need do is purchase your eBook through iTunes.
First post hi hi hi…
Welcome iTablet!!!
well, no, tthat actually would be a coincidence, Jim.
Damn Prophet, you’ve beaten me…
should have used one less hi in your post and you would have beaten him. lol
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Jim Lynch.
Yet another tech writer asshat. These idiots are in to reading tea leaves and making up complete bullshit out of thin air.
No, asshat, I am NOT going to mark your word for anything. Leave what you are doing and collect garbage … literally.
Yeah Renel_A, why don’t you show me the way next time
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It’s great that Apple owns the name “iBook.” But I don’t think Apple will release a device that is dedicated to reading books. Carry around yet another separate device? Apple wants the iPhone to be the ONE device everyone carries with them.
Now, I’ve read books on my old b/w Handspring Visor. If Apple wanted to enter this market, it would just include ebook-reader software for the inevitable “tablet” (bigger screen) version of the iPod touch / iPhone. Even the current size screen would be fine for reading ebooks, since shorter lines of text makes for faster reading.
iPhone and iPod Touch (and possibly the fabled tablet) will have ebook software when the SDK is released. Also, he said they changed iBook to MacBook because they wanted Mac in the name of all their computers. Makes perfect sense. No smoke screen whatsoever.
As someone who reads, though, I would like to see ebooks available for iPhone through iTunes. May not be a large enough market though, as SJ pointed out.
@prophet
I don’t know about you, but I really wouldn’t like to try reading a book on a 3.5″ screen.
Something similar to an iPod Touch with a 7″-9″ screen would be good, but I don’t know what battery life would be with a larger screen. I would be really pissed if I was on one of my regular 14 hour flights from NY to Hong Kong and the battery died halfway there. I’d be stuck flipping through a SkyMall catalog for 7 hours.
However, as something like this would do double duty as a video player, maybe there’s a market.
It’s true that veteran Apple-watchers have noticed this, and it makes Steve’s statement all the more curious. Exactly what message is he trying to send? We have to assume that he’s aware that his competitors have noticed his tendency.
One wonders if the whole statement was merely designed to make Amazon nervous. Given that the music labels are trying to prop up Amazon as an alternative to the iTunes Music Store, he could be playing this as a complex angle.
Anyway, it’s true that the iPhone/iPod Touch don’t make great e-book readers, as the backlit LCD doesn’t work nearly as well as e-paper for long-form reading. If Apple steps into this market, expect the hardware to be a Bluetooth-based accessory for the iPhone. The question is really what they will do to set up the content side.
Is the Kindle really just a repackaged Windows tablet, as show in the picture in the linked article?
Or is that just artistic license run amuck?
Be nice for my iPhone to project a page-size hologram that I could view/read/whatever, along the lines of R2D2’s performance, minus the static.
Quite a leap in logic I’d say. Take a few rumors and what if’s, add the opposite of what Steve Jobs says, and presto, you have Apple’s next product. This story has the same odor as the one about Apple and VW collaborating on a car.
Move on everyone, there is nothing to see here.
@Prophet
I agree that Apples response will be an application on the iPhone or iPod Touch. But I believe that Apple will add a twist. Perhaps the ebooks from ITMS will include both text and audio so you can listen to the audio book (like audible content) along with being able to read the text. Quicktime has long had the ability to syncronize both audio with text (and of course video). If the book was not available in a audio version, Apple could use it’s text to speech funcationality to suppliment the book. However, I would like to believe that Apple will offer something more than that with their eBook reader.
I have used the Sony eBook reader and the display is amazing for a static monochrome image. However the refresh rate and the dithering are annoying. I suspect that Apple will avoid the e-paper concept and will continue to use the touch screen technology in the iPhone and iPod Touch.
Truly dumb analysis. This like using reverse psychology to get someone to do what you tell them not to do?
iPods were great because practically everyone had a “library” of CDs to load up on their iPods as soon as they bought them.
I think the whole e-Book concept is flawed because with an eBook reader you spend $300 -400 and you got Jack squat to read on your e-Book. You still have to go out and buy e-Books since you can’t exactly load your printed library on your e-book.
Now if they could hook an e-book reader into a database of public domain works that were freely availible online—now that might gain some traction. But again, why not just download the doc to your laptop, iPhone or iPod touch. Who needs yet another device?
No ‘iBook Kindle killer’ in the cards…. instead it will be ‘Newton 2.0’ or some other name for the yet-to-be-released iPhone-iPod-touch-like table that has been rumored for some time. eBooks will just be one feature among iPhone features and mobile iWork. Same form function only larger… with possible detachable mini-keyboard.
Mark MY words…. the true prophet.
‘table’…NOT ‘table’
Damn Prophet™ Spell Check!
“Besides the fact that Kindle is a product in search of a market, it also doesn’t help that it looks like something John Dykstra superglued together back in 1975.” – MacDailyNews Take, Jan. 16, 2008
I seem to remember Steve bad mouthing subscription music and never releasing a subscription service. sometimes a chair is just a chair.
How can something coming out NOW be called a “Kindle eBook killer” ?
Isn’t the Kindle already dead?
Does anyone own one?
Anyone seen one?
Wouldn’t ZUNE sales numbers look fantastic next to the Kindle’s?
I’m just askin’ is all.
I wouldn’t be surprised if Apple came out with a tablet sized device that could wirelessly surf the net, and read ebooks.. though I doubt that apple would bill it as an ebook reader first and formost.
On another note.. I know that SJ talked down about video on the iPod and then later came out with a video ipod.. but when else did he do something like this? The analyst seems to imply it’s an ongoing pattern but 1 time is certainly not a pattern. Does anyone remember other instance of this?
Shame on you, MDN. Aren’t you tired of all the iPod killer / iTunes killer rhetoric? Yet you turn around and label an as-yet vaporific Apple product a “Kindle killer”…
Tsk, tsk.
Makes me (MW) “ill.”
“If you’re at all familiar with Jobs…”
It’s pretty clear that Lynch is not familiar with him. He really didn’t disparage the Kindle, he said that no one reads books anymore (I guess I’m a no one, because I’m usually reading 2+ books at any given time).
I’d be really surprised to see Apple come out with a dedicated book reading device.
The only book reader Apple will release is a secondary application on whatever table-type product Apple eventually releases, or a new app for the iPhone/iPod Touch.
Trying to sell one touch screen device the size of a mouse pad that only is a book reader is stupid. Now make that an internet-connected multi-purpose device with Inkwell, and you may have something.
Sometimes, a banana is just a banana.
Kindle killer?
The KINDLE is a Kindle killer.
More likely, it’ll be a new “Newton” but also have the ability to read eBooks. I highly doubt Apple will create a device whose sole purpose is reading eBooks.
I disavow any knowledge of an Apple FUD campaign to freeze sales of the Kindle.
It is just about as likely to be called the Newton or eBook or ][GS as it is the iBook. Too much confusion re-applying an old name to a completely different product.
In no particular order:
– One can only hope.
– I’d like to see a good eReader for all of the iPod/iPhone lines.
– If Apple comes out with a dedicated eReader then, NO PROPRIETARY BS. IT MUST WORK WITH ALL EBOOKS NOT JUST THE ONES FROM ONE PARTICULAR SITE!!!!!!!. READ MY LIPS [TYPING IN BOLD] NO PARTNERSHIPS, THEY SIMPLY DO NOT WORK TO THE BUYERS ADVANTAGE FOR THIS TYPE OF PRODUCT – PERIOD.
– A dedicated eReader from Apple must have an awesome screen and simple interface, and please dear lord something smaller than that ridiculous Amazon thing.
Peace, love, joy and happiness.
Steve Ballmer and Jerry Yang reportedly had a productive tryst, err… business meeting at San Francisco’s romantic getaway Dockside Boat and Bed. Ballmer has a stated fondness for wine and cheese and the slow easy rolling of incoming waves.
Eeeew.
eMac, iPod here…
eBook, iBook there…
All we need is Ofoto and we can all sing, “Eee ey ee eye oh.”
Any mid-scale portable that Apple develops will be capable of acting as an eBook platform. Apple develops targeted devices where the demand is high and the application makes sense (i.e., iPods). Apple develops/evolves multifunction devices where they make sense (iPod to iPod with photos and video, iPod touch with wireless and apps, iPhone with iPod and wireless and apps).
The market for a stand-alone eBook platform is small. The market for a “tablet” style portable with multi-touch that is larger than the iPhone/iPod touch, but smaller than the MacBook/Air would seem to be much greater, although possibly not large enough to trigger an Apple product in the near term. Wait and see…
Yeah, the kindle was a dumb idea.
‘(I guess I’m a no one, because I’m usually reading 2+ books at any given time).’
Ditto. Makes me wonder who Steve’s talking about there. Maybe he doesn’t have time to read.
First off, the reason that Apple replaced the iBook name with Macbook is to signify the Intel switch, the same reason Powermac and Powerbook were retired.
This will never happen, one because the “ebook” reader is targeted for such a specific type of media, and besides the shuffle, all of Apple’s iPods, iPhones, etc. can play movies, music, podcasts, games, etc. Their iPods are already fully capable of having ebooks on them, it would just take software and an easily accessible ebook service in the iTunes store. You can almost expect someone to write an ebook application for the iPhone/iPod touch once the SDK comes out. I just think that Apple has other priorities, because people definitely don’t read as much as they watch movies, listen to music, etc. So, while it could happen to iPhones, & iPods, i would never expect an Apple-made “ebook” device. It’s just not logical and its just not in their history to ever come out with this device. Apple has publicly stated that they are all about the “Digital Hub” of movies, music, podcasts, mobile media. They’re also betting on the fact that people are less likely to go out and buy a new device for their ebooks, when they could just add it to thier iPod they already have for a small software fee.
And on a side-semi-related note, I think that applications like that are the future of the iPhone, and the iPhone will be more like a computer with selling applications, etc. t
Something else to consider…
Apple has already text to speech built into OS X and if the iPod Touch and iPhone are “the real/full version” of OS X then they have that capability too.
There’s no stopping someone to easily set a program to automatically read a text file, an email, a web page, etc instead of highlighting & going up to the menu to make it speak.
Chris
@John
I don’t know about you, but reading War and Piece on a Nano would be like carving something out of a toothpick. But I agree with you in essence. This entire story is SPECULATION, and bad one, at that.
Besides, Jobs is right. Off all the people I know here in the US, I actually know more that have NEVER read a book then those who are avid readers.
iSeriously doubt that Apple would rehash the iBook moniker for any new device. It would have been a good name for it, but I just don’t see Apple doing that.
The other part about him talking down that market is interesting… and I would put money on it that Apple is working on something. But I think it is hasty to think EVERYTHING Apple does has Jobs in the front line. They have many talented people, including someone by the name of Jonathan Ive, that work at Apple. Jobs most likely has the final say… but I am not so sure that he is in the kitchen cooking on EVERY project as people seem to believe.
“Behind every great man there is a strong woman.” Well, behind Jobs, there is Jonathan Ive. (not that I am comparing him to a woman.)
The Dude abides.
For simple prose like novels you don’t need another device. A cell phone makes a fine reader, in spite of / because of its small backlit screen. The small size means its so portable you carry it everywhere (or its size has been limited to what you will carry everywhere). The backlight is nice for reading in dim light – at night without waking your partner for example. Why spend $400 ?
You can get a lot of free public domain and creative commons books for phones from http://www.booksinmyphone.com
No, the kindles competitor is an iPod, with audio books.
i can’t be bothered reading either, I just buy an audio book. I even have iWoz on audio book as well.
if they make a 5.5 or 6.5 inch version of the touch with a little more power, and some doc editing features (the SDK might be enough to do that) then the ability to read ebooks would just be a bit of frosting on the cake.
bring it out guys i am waiting for it….
“I disavow any knowledge of an Apple FUD campaign to freeze sales of the Kindle.”
all 4 of the kindles they would have sold this year are going to get left in the warehouse?
I’d much rather have “phone sex” quality text-to-speech on my iPod Touch. I might actually “read” the newspaper then.
Gazzam!
If people don’t read any more, it seems to me that the eBook killer is already out there and it’s called the Audiobook.
An alternative would be an eBook reader that speaks the text for you in a sexy voice.
Either way an iPod Touch or an iPhone would be all you’d need.
That sexy voice could be male, female or robotic for the Bill Gates crowd.
@The Dude
I definitely agree with you about reading books on iPod classics and nanos, it would be extremely difficult, even the iPhones and iPod touches to a degree, but if Apple were to come out with the software for just iPhone and iPod touches, I’m pretty sure the public wouldn’t be happy to know that while their nano is capable of doing this, Apple just refused to support it in the update, simmilar to the video rentals not supported on 5G iPods. While most people aren’t going to read ebooks on their iPods, there’s always going to be that, “well why couldnt the just let me have that functionality too?” like, Apple might as well allow it, as long as it isn’t too costly to add a iPod nano/Classic version.
And while we’re on the subject, if ebooks came to the iPod, I think Apple would take an interesting spin on things, not what you’d typically expect out of an ebook reader, like maybe a magazine/newspaper functionality on thier -Pod devices. etc. And while I think that the best way to view these things is on an iPhone or iPod touch, a watered down text based version could always be produced for the regular iPods. Oh, and it would work similar to the podcast feeds or TV shows, except you’d pay subscription fees or by the edition, etc. So that you automatically get the latest edition when you plug in your iPod, and of course budding ‘zines and such could get their start in iTunes, supplying free magazine/newspaper content and work their way up, get popular and voila! a new magazine was born…
I made a market case for a 6×9″ or larger MacBook touch on my blog on December 14th. Will Apple Save Publishing?
All Apple needs is a book page sized iPod touch-like device to effectively capture the e-book reader market.
Apple would never use a previous products name as a future product name. That would only serve to create confusion, and that is very un-Apple.
Nothing to see here, everyone go home.
Quite possibly the stupidest “analyst” I have read in a LONGGGGG time. Good grief… Oh, and Sometimes a tire iron is just a tire iron.
i think that the “dedicated ebook reader” will really be the ipod tablet! it makes no sense to make just a dedicated ereader. It will probably be something the size of the kindle, but thinner and have all of the itunes controls built in so that it links directly, just like with an ipod. additionally, it will probably be wireless. it will probably allow books, music, films to be downloaded on the fly.
Any device that Apple created or enabled to read ebooks would beat the crap out of the Kindle. It’s crap. Yawn…zzzzzzzzz…..
I think Amazon would disagree that people don’t read anymore since they are the largest book seller on the planet. Plus their Kindle is in such demand they are back ordered.