One of the most ignorant things Steve Jobs has ever said is “It doesn’t matter how good or bad the product is, the fact is that people don’t read anymore. 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.” He was talking about the new Kindle from Amazon. I want to ask Steve Jobs who did his market research for him, and how accurate it can be?
It sounds more like a defeat whine from Jobs, instead of any factual information. Where do you pull numbers like 40% of Americans don’t read? Or that people in the US read one book or less? They is no way of accurately capturing that information, and seems more like a lie to cover their inability to compete with the current offerings.
If Jobs was to say that the average American only ‘buys’ 1 book a year, that would be a call he could make by notifying publishing companies and asking sales figures. Just polling a small amount of the population on how many books they read is ridiculous. How about the people who borrow books from friends, or from libraries, did you poll all of them?
I am not a Kindle fan, I much prefer a physical book, over reading from any type of digital display. I like libraries and book shops. I love my bookshelf full of books that I’ve bought and haven’t quite got through them all yet. The Kindle doesn’t give me what I need. Doesn’t mean that everyone feels that way.
I would love to give Kindles sales numbers to prove a point, but they are a mystery to everyone except Amazon. What I can say is that Apple make safe sale proven products, that you know people will gobble up. An E-Reader is too fresh a technology for them. Stick to releasing iPod’s and Mac’s that are shiny, and leave the true innervation to the gamblers.

For more info, click over to PMPToday.

For the poor people out there who can’t get a Wii, I would like to show you these numbers. Amazon, one of the biggest online retailers in the world, on December the 10th was selling 62.5 items per second. Now compare that to the fact that when Amazon had the Wii in stock it was being shifted at 17 items per second. Lastly, ask yourself why Nintendo haven’t really dropped the price on the Wii yet?

For more info, click over to the Gamasutra Website. Thank you Kotaku for the picture.