Apple’s Steve Jobs Still Unimpressed with Kindle

Apple’s CEO Steve Jobs has never been a Kindle fan, making this statement last year:

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.

I’m still curious about where he gets his statistics from…after all, Barnes & Noble, Walden Books, and the like seem to sell enough books to still be in business. Why shouldn’t the Kindle?

At yesterday’s Apple conference, Jobs lashed out at Kindle again, saying,

I’m sure there will always be dedicated devices, and they may have a few advantages in doing just one thing. But I think the general-purpose devices will win the day because I think people just probably aren’t willing to pay for a dedicated device. You notice Amazon never says how much they sell; usually if they sell a lot of something, you want to tell everybody.

While the general-purpose device theory may apply to items like phones, cameras, and mp3 players, e-readers are a special breed. Their screen is specially designed for reading. In addition, reading is a very single-tasking activity. I don’t know many people that like to surf the web while reading. Most readers I know don’t even like to listen to music while reading.

Despite Jobs’ negative remarks about Kindle, there have been rampant rumors that Jobs himself is working on a direct competitor to the Kindle. More likely, the rumored Apple Table will be a multi-tasking powerhouse that just happens to have e-book capabilities.