News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch told the Fox Business Network that he thinks tablets represent the “end of laptops.” In an interview with the cable network, Mr. Murdoch heaped praise on Apple CEO Steve Jobs, saying, “Here we have the man who invented the personal computer, then the laptop. He’s now destroying them. That is an amazing life.”
The interview from a network that Mr. Murdoch’s company owns was part of the marketing blitz Mr. Murdoch and News Corp. are engaging in to promote the release of The Daily, a new iPad-only (for now) daily newspaper.
Technically, Mr. Murdoch is fudging history a bit in that it was Steve Jobs who recognized Steve Wozniak’s invention of the Apple I computer for its potential; and, while Mr. Jobs headed the team that developed the Macintosh computer (which could be what Mr. Murdoch was thinking about when he said “invented the personal computer”), Mr. Jobs wasn’t at Apple for the development of the Mac Portable or the PowerBook.
Source: News Corp
Be that as it may, Mr. Murdoch was clearly paying tribute to the disruptive force that Steve Jobs has been throughout his professional career, pushing the Apple II into prominence, and then recognizing the work being done at the Xerox PARC in GUIs for its potential, and turning that work into a shipping product that disrupted that same Apple II.
We should also note that Mr. Murdoch may be a bit premature in heralding the end of laptops, but he was certainly an early believer in the ascendancy of tablets, and his company has devoted significant resources into having an early presence on the iPad.
In the interview, which was transcribed by PaidContent, Mr. Murdoch also noted that he hopes to be able to negotiate a larger cut of The Daily sales. Currently, Apple takes 30% off the top of all app sales in exchange for the transaction and for the privilege of being on iTunes itself.
When asked about this by Neil Cavuto of Fox Business Network, Mr. Murdoch said that he “hoped” Apple’s cut would go down after the first year, and said that it was an area subject to negotiation.