Re: why Apple won't build an ebook reader

On Wed, 16 Jan 2008, Bill Janssen wrote:

>> Love to know where Jobs got his numbers from.  Suzanne
>
> Don't know, but maybe from this AP story from August 27th of last year:
>
>  http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070821/ap_on_re_us/reading_habits_ap_poll
> You might also want to look through http://www.arts.gov/research/ToRead.pdf.

This is one of those times when I would really like to hear the 
original interview. I can see a very reasonable interpretation of 
Jobs' comment - that not enough people are reading books like 
novels to justify a device whose primary use is reading books. He 
sees the number of people who would buy a device primarily for 
reading books - and who would NOT buy a device if it did more - 
as a small number that he can afford to not serve. (old example: 
the video cassette player)

Any smart CEO looks for ways to serve their customers better, and 
to serve more customers -- but to do so while minimizing the 
effort of the company. There are smart reasons for this - 
minimizing types of products allows better management of your 
corporate resources. Fewer product types means you can 
concentrate your efforts - you produce the best possible 10 
things, rather than a medicore 1000 things.

Finally, after reading the comments at the NYT blog, I'm getting 
tired of one particular theme that crops up at times like this - 
the "I still need device X, so clearly there is a worthwhile 
market for device X". Sorry, but no-one person constitutes a 
worthwhile market. Better off to trust reports like the above.

Jobs likely wouldn't say it exactly this way, but if you want to 
read on a portable device, go get a Mac Air, iPhone or iTouch, 
depending on your other needs. Jobs figures that a substantial 
majority of the people who want to read ebooks will use other 
features, such as email and web browsing.


:: chris smith ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
:: nihil tam munitum quod non expugnari pecuna possit - cicero ::


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