So, where am I thinking wrong? 40% of Americans only read at the most one book a year... so, 40% are not readers. This means that a significant majority--60% of Americans read more than one book a year... That's a huge number... Certainly a bigger number than who own Macintoshes!

But furthermore... Has anybody asked _why_ these people don't read more? Maybe they are on the go too much, and don't want to be bogged down carrying a paperback or hardback book? What nobody knows, and we'll never know, is how many _more_ people would read books if they were easily available on the iPhone, etc? I have little time nowadays, to sit and read a book, so all my reading is done on my Palm. I probably buy 1-2 books off of eReader.com a year, and read several other etexts I download, or or otherwise procure every year--these are books I would never have time to read, had I to carry a book around with me constantly. I currently have something like 30 books on my Palm, and all have been read in the past two years, though some are still works in progress--which my Palm has remembered my place! I can pick up a book months after the last time I read it, and pick up where I left off! book readers are a sleeper!

So, why not at Apple? and why not maybe, in general? Well, books aren't sexy, like videos or music. They are downright dull... It doesn't "hype" well...

-Jon

Quote

JonGl wrote:
This means that a significant majority--60% of Americans read more than one book a year... That's a huge number... Certainly a bigger number than who own Macintoshes!

I think what Steve was getting at is that while 60% may read two or more books a year, the number of books purchased relative to the population is low, so you could say that not all that many books are sold (comparative to the number of movies, music tracks, games, etc.). Also take into consideration the saturation of the market and the number of people who read books and have a healthy enough interest in looking into alternative ways to enjoy their activity... Not all that many people are looking for eBooks or eBook Readers when you look at it that way.

Still, I agree, there is probably a good enough market to sustain a good product of this category, just not the right market for Apple at this time.

I think Steve has the model wrong for apple tv -- he treats it like an ipod instead of an iphone. ipod was for downloaded music (and secondary other stuff) and iphone convergence of ipod+phone+web. apple tv is an ipod for downloaded movies -- it isn't tv at all -- (and secondary other stuff).

But I want a dvd player in it so i can sell the dvd player and (we don't get tv) and use it in apple tv. i assume most people would like tv and tivo capability built in.

why?

because i don't want to have to leave the apple tv user interface to manage those klunky other devices since we have dozens of dvds which we still watch regularly.

oh yeah, 24h to watch a downloaded movie after you start is a non-starter: i have little kids and there often isn't time in the evening to watch a whole movie, but often it is a couple of days before we can get back to it.

sigh.

"... The whole conception is flawed at the top because people don't read anymore." - Steve

This is a man who brags about Mac sales, which are less than 6% of the U.S. market share.

I think, a lot of people read. Maybe it's the thought of curling up with your computer that has readers still clinging to the printing press.

-Bob

Same for me; I have a five year old and we rarely are able to watch a movie in it's entirety in 24 hours. Seems like it would make more sense to let you watch it anytime during the 30 days you have it.
Once again, Apple has a great product that I can't use. Very frustrating.

[quote="Anonymous"]Same for me; I have a five year old and we rarely are able to watch a movie in it's entirety in 24 hours. Seems like it would make more sense to let you watch it anytime during the 30 days you have it.
Once again, Apple has a great product that I can't use. Very frustrating.[/quote

The word on the street is that if you forward-date your Mac to the future before starting to watch it, you can stop the film, back date to the present, and have until that future date to finish it, thus negating that 24hr limit.... No word how long Apple will let _that_ loophole last!

-Jon

I read a lot of books each year and it's a drag to carry them on trips. Kindle really solves this. It's not perfect (nor even available) but when it is, I'll grab one. I was hoping for an Apple product but what the heck.

I also want a phone I can pull out the SIM card when I travel. I don't care about being locked into a company here in the US, but I want an IPhone that works for me. The current one doesn't. When I'm on the road for 4 months a year, I just wont have those sorts of data charges. That's nuts.

David

.... can be found here:

http://parapublishing.com/sites/para/resources/statistics.cfm

Rather sad actually.