I read...

They were who we thought they were!

Who could ever replace Steve when he decides to retire? No one (in our hearts that is..)

Reading is dead? Who knew?

Seriously, media readers are still in their infancy. I wouldn't cry the death of the Kindle quite yet. With WiFi built in, and perhaps eventually a color screen that didn't suck gobs of power, I could see transfering a good number of books to a portable reader. Although I'll never give up carrying around real book with me. I'm old school like that.

I read like 2 or 3 novels a week, and would love a GOOD e-reader.

nobody reads and android will hurt google? sounds like sour grapes / fear of competition if you ask me.

...I'm sorry, I don't know what to reply because I don't know what this Post is about.

Um, I guess he means reading for longer than 5 minutes at a time... Otherwise nobody would be even browsing the web.
I wonder how the book industry is surviving if no one reads anymore.
I mean, you know how little money some of those books make. Yeah, like the whole Harry Potter fiasco, sold like 10 books, all to family and friends.

Tsk tsk, Stevie...

The reason that people are not reading in the TRADITIONAL sense is that, instead of being dependent on the facts in one book - you can cruise the WEB and get dozens or different perspectives on just about any issue - free or for a low subscription fee

I think there's a very evil robot somewhere at Apple and Steve's trying to do one of those Captain Kirk logic traps to make its head explode.

I read. Hell, I even write letters. Honest to God, letters.

Hey! I'm reading right now... Or am I?

Steve, only fools don't read and you are probably right. Most 20 somethings don't read because TV and video games are more fun. Whatever. The Kindle is great (and I have been using one for two months) because I can carry, in my case 10 books around in one package and read which ever one I feel like reading at the moment. Tech books one moment, polital reads another. A little later a book on health and later a novel. Only one thing to carry and I can buy more at a moment's notice. The DRM?? Who cares, I usually have to take books to GoodWill when I am done with them. No more!!! (sorry GoodWill!!)

Doctor When

What is he hiding with that beard? The creeping onset of insanity?

Right, Steve! Here's some quotes for sales in 06:

"New York, NY, May 22, 2007: The Association of American Publishers (AAP) has today released its annual estimate of total book sales in the United States. The report, which uses data from the Bureau of the Census as well as sales data from eighty-one publishers inclusive of all major book publishing media market holders, estimates that U.S. publishers had net sales of $24.2 billion in 2006.

"Trade sales of adult and juvenile books grew 2.9 percent to $8.3 billion, a compound growth rate of 3.7 percent per year since 2002. The strongest growth in this category came from adult paperback books whose sales rose 8.5 percent on last year to a total of $2.3 billion. Adult hardbound books also had a strong year growing by 4.1 percent to $2.6 billion."

"Mass market paperbacks saw growth of 4.6 percent in 2006 reaching $1.1 billion."

Now add to that magazines and newpapers and you'll realize that Steve is talking out his ass! Is he so rich that he can dismiss a market worth tens of billions?

Steve just doesn't want people to read because it's that kind of subversive activity that lets people know they won't be able to upgrade a Macbook Air before they've paid him for it.

Maybe you don't read, Steve, but there are still those of us out here who haven't been able to make our fortunes off the gullibility of consumers and still prefer substance to surface.

/reactionary bile.

It's just so disappointing to see someone that high on popular culture's A-list making such a negative critique or our general population, even if it is out-and-out false.

@rudeadly: +10 for the Denny Green reference!

-5 for getting it from the beer commercial.

Well to be honest, most people don't really read anymore. Especially the new age group in America. Teenagers are reading less and less. Its why companies like mine (advertising), have to trim copy down on every ad we put out. The last statistic that I know the advertising firms have been following is a maximum of 8 words before the viewer loses concentration.

*critique of our general population.

Edit button? Post preview before submission? Anyone? Bueller?

"People dont read anymore" ??????!!!!

Sorry but is he an idiot?

I like Steve but that was just a dumb statement. I live in NYC and ride Subway everyday, and each time I see at least 10 people reading books, yes Stevie BOOKs. People reading in the parks, while walking, etc. What the hell is he saying??? I am pissed!

I even saw a guy reading a book on his iPhone touch. Is Steve a panda who sleeps 22 hours a day and eats (doesnt READ) for the rest?!

AARRRGGGHH!!

People don't read anymore? Maybe at the billionaires club, but in the real world reading is alive and well.

I see people reading everywhere. When I eat lunch today it's a safe bet I'll see upwards of ten different people reading.

Go to a Borders or Barnes & Noble. All those freeloaders sitting around aren't staring at the pictures on CDs. They're reading books and magazines.

And what about blogs? I can't speak for everyone, but I enjoy reading them. I have no interest in listening to a podcast of Gizmodo.

Sour grapes about the Amazon MP3 store perhaps?

Android *can* hurt Google, since they could be spreading themselves thin, but let's keep in mind that Jobs presents these things from his ivory tower, in a perfect world where everything should be Just That Simple, so long as you don't ever need to look all the way into the guts of the problem.

The Apple way is to provide a device that only does what it can do perfectly. Hence the iPod is iTunes in your pocket. The iPhone is threaded SMS, iTunes, and a Flash-free web browser in your pocket. Multi-touch is great for light input and heavy output. The dirty truth is, Apple hides their warts. Do people bitch that they can't use the iPhone as a full PDA, due to the one-way syncing? Absolutely, but ask the average end user who drops $400 to $600 on a phone: Do you REALLY want to tap all of that freaking info into your Notes app?

If the average user of the product won't do it, Apple won't implement it. Hence the XServe taking so long to reach the market. Apple shops didn't really WANT a server all that soon. When they wanted storage, Apple waited until they could get the details down. When they wanted SAN software, Apple polished the hell out of XSAN until it was ready. (It still lacks features that I need, but that's why I'm not using it.)

Google will release something with some polish, and a lot of power and extensibility. Apple will release a black box. From Jobs' perspective, Google's absolutely going down the wrong path, but the market of people who don't want a mysterious black box is actually much larger than any of us expect.

at gizmodo kindle reads you

Come on Matt, are you gonna change the site name to MACmodo or can we move on to covering other tech goodness already. I'm not a Apple fanboi so this stuff doesn't make me wet or anything.

Nothing more to see here, Please move along.

It's called "confidence." Perhaps you've heard of it?

I think the quote is BS, it's prolly taken out of content refering to something else, but @LittleJon, the fact that sales have gone up does not mean people are reading more, the numbers refer to money made by sales; where's the graph that shows us the amount of people who actually read the books.
Most people just chuck them in a book shelf because it was given to them for an XMAS present... hey some people actually still read! The point is the sales do not amount the people who read.
We're live in a planet with people that are less likely to pick up a book, I think that's what he meant, and it's true. But people still read!

@ImTheKing:

correction: people dont read your ADS because ads are stupid, not because dont read

Waht do Jobs say? I can't read all dem fanzy wurds! He shuld speek in fanzy big purty icons.

I read e-books on my hacked iPhone all the time. Am I messing with the space time continuum?

Psh... I read books every night.

@ImTheKing: people dont read ads because ads are stupid. people read things like, oh i dont know, books, magazines, and newspapers.

on my morning commute about the only thing to do is read, and i must see 5 people on every car reading something everytime im on the subway

Steve has been very successful, but that doesn't mean he's not crazy. He'll say anything to advance his goals - and he'll believe it. That's the secret behind the reality distortion field: rock solid belief in what he wants to be true.

i am reading, and writing, right this second.

he`s making an apple reader

believe that

ppl read, and they read more if they can read e-books

Well, it was certainly a veiled threat if he said it in bold like that. That's the sure sign of a veiled threat.

It would be in his best interest to shut his mouth, Since when is he an authority on what people "want"? I spose they "want" non replaceable battery's on laptops?

From a company with 8% market share tops, he has proven, that neither him, nor his company, actually has any clue what 92% of the market "wants"..

gmail & all google apps > iPhone... Apple has more to loose than google.

He should have made his "Thoughts on music" a Podcast....then maybe iTunes would have DRM-free music and not Amazon.

if people don't read, how come the kindle sold out so fast? jackass (yes, i'm still a little bitter about being asked to pay for apps for my ipod that should be free)

I read very regularly, but honestly, electronic readers are going to have a long way to go to beat the book. Everybody remembers that jokey old e-mail forward about it, but it's true: It's small (but not too small), sturdy, lightweight, legible, reusable, loanable, portable, and it allows you to mark your place easily. Plus you can write phone numbers down on the back page if you're in a rush.

@prodigal_son: There's a reason its not "apple computer" any more. Newsflash, dude- 8% of the PC market only captures a small portion of Apple's sales. You forgot this little thing called the iPod, its buddy iTunes, and also the iPhone.

and what a market 'wants' is never one thing- and almost no one can provide everything that everyone wants... if they could, capitalism wouldn't work.

/rant over

Yeah, right.

People don't read anymore is likely to be the worst quote of Mr Jobs ever. I confess I thought it was a joke at first. Not coincidently, Mr Jobs is attacking two very successful companies that are ahead of Apple and have way more open-minded philosophies than his. He must be (way over) too proud of his well-designed 2% or simply making an ugly dismiss of his honest opponents.

2008 is starting as a not good year for Apple and Mr Jobs.

I wish Steve Jobs and Apple fan boys would disappear so I wouldn't be ashamed of liking (some) Apple products.

Nothing says "I'm a pompous ass" like wearing the same outfit all the time... and then making product hand/torso models wear it in your commercials as well.

I love to read, and read a lot, but I prefer to read from paper, not a screen. I write in my books (textbooks generally), I dogear the pages, etc. I dont get as much out of reading from a screen as from paper. That is why an e-reader holds no appeal for me, and I think for a lot of people will feel that way.
(I like Steves beard, I think he is going for the non-conformist, Apple FanBoi look; it works for him.)

jobs is right about whatever it was that he said. idk, i didnt read it.

Can someone please make a video, or even an MP3 podcast about this? I don't read anymore, but I'd like to know what Steve Jobs has to say.

culture of ignorance, as a influential figure, do you pointing out a right way? NO, You rip ppl off from it.....