Reading Steve Jobs

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By John Markoff

Second-guessing Steve Jobs — or actually first-guessing — is Silicon Valley’s most popular spectator sport. Dozens of Web rumor sites pore over every one of his pronouncements as if he were the pope, looking for product and strategy hints.

At Macworld Mr. Jobs told me he was skeptical about the Amazon Kindle book reader because most Americans don’t read. That touched off a firestorm of criticism and speculation. My favorite bit of analysis was that this must mean he is readying his own book reader. A familiar Jobsian strategy is to denigrate an entire category — he did this with cellphones, for example — before reinventing it with Apple panache.

So if he were going to reinvent reading, how would Mr. Jobs do it?

Let’s put together the pieces of the puzzle:

Apple’s multitouch technology began life not as a cellphone, but as a notepad-sized skunkworks project internally dubbed Safari Pad, run by Tim Bucher, then Apple’s head of Macintosh hardware. To his credit, Mr. Jobs seized on the technology and morphed it into the iPhone.

At Macworld, when I asked Mr. Jobs about the idea of an iPod Touch in a larger “Safari Pad” format, he snapped at me, “I can’t talk about unannounced products.”

Intriguing.

On Wednesday, at a financial conference, Apple chief operating officer Tim Cook, confirmed that the iPod Touch was a platform, not a single product. That would indicate that there is something like a Safari Pad in the offing — a Wi-Fi connected device that would be a scaled-up digital media reader.

Intel, to be sure, is encouraging the market for low-cost devices that fit somewhere in size between cellphones and notebook computers with its Diamondville and Silverthorne microprocessors that it branded Monday as the Atom.

So despite all the criticism Mr. Jobs has taken for impugning American literacy, maybe he actually believes he can do for reading what he for listening to music? (I mean, if all a Safari Pad does is Web browsing, that would be a bit of an anticlimax.) And despite the mixed reports on the success of the Kindle to date — there are reports that it has sold out, but the word from the publishing world is murkier — Mr. Jobs has to have taken note that the Kindle’s real genius was in borrowing a page from the iPod-iTunes business-model playbook.

What would the reaction be to something about the same size and less than the thickness of the Macbook Air? Without a doubt the Apple industrial design department could do a better job than Amazon in conceptualizing a digital book.

Certainly stranger things have happened. Wouldn’t it be ironic if Mr. Jobs could ultimately claim to have saved reading books in the digital age?

Yeah, this guy (Jobs) has a history of selling old wine in new bottles. If you remember, he derided the concept of mobile video players.

Whether it’s war or iPods, packaging counts.

†Posted by jc

Its the price, not the technology. An electronic book used to charge MORE than paperback until Kindle got partway there with $10 book. And Kindle downloading is easy. Steve made music relatively inpensive for $1 a track instead of $20 per CD and convenitent to buy too. When book downloads are fall to the $5 range or less, then they become attractive. Even if they expire in 60 days like a library book.

†Posted by peter

i think steve job’s comment that ‘americans don’t read’ was a way for him to slight Amazon Kindle without saying the obvious criticism ‘Kindle is ugly as sin.’ I do think you are right, though, in that Apple is going to come out with larger “Safari Pad” kind of device.

†Posted by dave a

As an owner of an actual internet platform, an N800. I can say that I do read books on it. Currently I’m reading Beyond Reasonable Doubt and recently finished, Where Darwin Meets the Bible. Any device that can load a PDF can be a tool for reading. But the real thing for this will be the “Star Trekification” of literature. What I want is a device that when I’m having my online or offline arguments about a topic, to be able to search all books I own from that one tablet (and even books I don’t) and have any reference I need. This is where the technology needs to go.

†Posted by Sondjata Olatunji

The Kindle isn’t bad for a book reader. The problem is, just how many devices will we have buy and lug around to meet our mobile needs. Any 3G enabled laptop could make a decent reader with the right software. Right now the Kindle’s sole advantage is in its extended battery run time; its great disadvantage is its lack of color (let alone video) display. Once Apple, or any manufacturer, comes up with a light weight, fully functional mobile device that can go a day or more on a single charge, there will be no need for the Kindle, IMHO.

†Posted by andy

Oh, please, please? A Apple ebook would be amazing. I’d buy one now, sight-unseen.

†Posted by Will Meyerhofer

A hopeful speculation. I first wrote on this on my blog on Dec 14, last year. http://graysonagency.com/blog/ I came to the vision as a literary agent who sees book publishing withering under increasing monopoly control of book publishing, manufacture and distribution. Only an e-book reader with iPod-like appeal can halt this slide and restore profitability to authors, editors, and imprints.

John is a sharp analyst and I hope he’s right.

†Posted by Ashley Grayson

To me is clear that amazon could do a much better job of design. I think they lauch the uglyest reader in the world because they want “show the way” and license the technology thereafter, making money with licensing fees.

†Posted by Mario Ramos

I’ve been reading books on my PocketPC for years, and it’s slightly annoying but definitely has some advantages: 1) portability 2) it has its own light source, which is particularly convenient. The problems with the PocketPC are well known: hard to synchronize, memory leaks abound… sometimes I think it would be easier to just carry the book around.

However, I think that even if Apple (or whoever) solves these problems, none of these solutions will entice people to get rid of paper. The only way to get rid of paper is to give people what they have now: a book they can lose, lend, or break without worrying about some expensive piece of technology. The disposable ebook may take years before it becomes a reality, but that’s the moment that I’m really waiting for (and I hope it’s soon).

Dan www.DVDs4theSAT.com Top-quality SAT video prep course

†Posted by Dan

It’s an obvious and natural addition to Apple’s product line. If people can easily and comfortably read digital books when they have discretionary time (while on the train, on the john)it would do for books what the iPod did for recorded music.

†Posted by Jonah Giacalone

I think that would be quite ironic, but I wouldn’t mind if such a device were to come out soon. It’s delightful to see Apple coming out with so many devices for the modern consumer helping to connect them to that which they love. I am a complete Apple Fanboy and the prospect of a “Safari Pad” is amazing.

However, plenty of Americans read, over 1000 new books are printed every day

†Posted by Behzod Sirjani

It’s also interesting to note that the Zinio reader is only available on the IPhone/Ipod Touch (as far as portable gadgets are concerned). It’s a fully operational rich document viewer which enables you to read periodicals with the fidelity that you’d expect from a desktop monitor or even the print versions themselves.

The thing is, to get that kind of fidelity you are giving up on one of the big wins you get from eInk - battery life. I cannot imagine what the power drain would be on powering a full color LCD all the time. Also, since actual books would be a waste in that regard, I don’t know how you can switch between eInk and (essentially) PDF.

Books are great, but periodicals are even greater. To be able to read your local newspapers, 6-8 monthly magazines (or even weeklys like “Time”), and get all of your RSS feeds wirelessly all in their full-color glory would be awesome. The paper savings would be tremendous, the instant distribution would be tremenedous, and te form-factor would be tremendous. Add in the ability to read a novel or two, that’s a bonus. But charging that device nightly… bleh.

†Posted by Jim

An interesting theory. A Safari pad would make sense for Apple, and iTunes can provide the syncing and payment capabilities.

This could be a larger video iPod, but the battery life might only be a few hours.

This is where Kindle got another thing right. Kindle’s power consumption is much lower than an iPod. It’s designed to display text, not video.

Kindle can play MP3 and Audible files, of course.

†Posted by Bill Sodeman

Sounds like here comes yet another product from Apple that steals every concept possible from existing products, denies that those products ever existed, and allows Steve to get up on his stage and announce “the new and original and amazing and perfect and terrific and best ever product of the universe”. And ofcourse…Steve and/or Apple always invented it. Here comes another brag-session.

When will people catch on.

†Posted by B.D.Kuchera

An Apple tablet will have multiple functions to widen the market beyond a book reader. There could even be a game accessory with the ability to connect to your TV through Apple TV. The accessory would have wi-fi or bluetooth connection to either device. One could also use the built in accelerometer for tilt play.

I’m hoping that Apple has some great screen technologies to utilize. They’ve held off updating their monitors for ages. But the biggest plus will be OS X and the programming tools to create software marketable on multiple platforms.

†Posted by Robert

If he was smart, his competing ebook reader would directly support PDFs, unlike the Kindle, so independent book authors aren’t left out in the cold.

†Posted by Alex

I already read on my iPhone - mostly this publication. The screen is small but the text is so sharp I don’t mind it. During my commute by train I read the nyt, listen to music and field calls all on one device. I would love a way to download a well formatted full copy of a magazine to it so that I don’t have to wait for each page to load.

I think a larger format device also makes sense. I can see people in hospitals using it. Review charts, enter Rx, and even take a picture to add to a patient history - or to forward to consult.

†Posted by david

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