Reading Steve Jobs Like a Book

I happen to be in camp with those who believe if Steve Jobs says something cannot be done or it won't sell, he is more than likely working on the idea.

This held true for music. He told Apple, the Beatles record label, that Apple Computer, Inc. would never get into the music business. This year Apple iTune Store will become the largest music retailer in the world surpassing Target and WalMart and they changed their name to Apple dropping the word "Computer" -- the same name as the record label.

Jobs told everyone that nobody would ever want to watch a movie or video on a palm sized device and then a year later came out with the video iPod.

Jobs told the computing world that Apple would not get into the cell phone business, at the same time, they began developing the iPhone the most revolutionary handset the cell phone industry has ever seen and sales in the first year have been astronomical.

Now Jobs is saying Amazon's Kindle cannot succeed because nobody reads. Literal translation: Apple is posed to jump into electronic book reader market because Kindle will not succeed. If nobody reads why does the book publishing industry have $25+ billion in annual sales and more than 60 thousand titles every year and those numbers are U.S. alone.

Following Job's career in technology I think it is safe to say that one thing that gets in his craw is to see an good idea and huge business opportunity poorly designed and implemented. Kindle is just one of those devices. The first things that comes to mind when you see Kindle is "Who would want to carry this object around with them or use it for reading?" (see photo above) and the answer is "Nobody!" The question goes to the very heart of industrial or commercial design.

Wired's review of the Kindle named it one of the 10 heartbreaking gadgets of 2007, called the keyboard "klugey", the email "clumsy" and the web browser "crippled" and concluded by saying Kindle was begging to be redesigned by Apple.

With Apple iTouch technologies one can be sure that Jobs and Apple iTouch technology specialist Tim Bucher are exploring this realm of new business opportunities. Kindle leaves a big hole for Apple to drive their design and marketing team at electronic distribution of books and literature. With the infrastructure of the Apple iTunes Store delivering content to multiple hardware platforms, you can be sure that Apple is eyeing the book and print publishing industry as the next great digital frontier.

Leak Management

What is the story with firmware, software and hardware info leaks?

Clearly, in the midst of a big Christmas sales push the "leak" from ATT senior executive and Apple partner ATT about a 3G iPhone coming in 2008 would be a cause of concern from a number of different offices around the country. A leak of that magnitude could slow unit sales during prime gift-giving rush. I know a number of friends who got the iPhone flyer in their stocking rather than a black box under the tree on Christmas morning.

Was this leak contrary to Apple's interests? In Apple's interests? Or simply an ATT move to signal to cell phone users who contracts were coming due to hold on or switch now to ATT because Edge is on its way out and 3G is coming?

And what about the iPhone firmware 1.1.3 leak that came out to the public during the holiday recess? Was this a Cheney-style managed leak from Apple? If you think not, maybe you don't know Dick...

There has been some speculation the Gear Live firmware leak was a managed leak to give Apple developers feedback on things that weren't working properly. Call the leak an unofficial beta test.

Apple chose to leak this pre-beta version during the holidays so their employees and quality assurance testers could go home to their families but the testing would continue on the internet. The holiday season is an excellent time for a public leak release since geeks are at home with nothing to do and will eagerly grab onto a story like this and run with it by asking questions and sorting out the answers.

For instance, during the video, when Andru tried to demonstrate how you could remove an icon from the menu bar and replaced it, the firmware crashed. This is a good thing to witness prior to MWSF come mid-month or before they send out a beat version to developers in advance of SDK release.

Apple also gets to hear all the feedback and shout outs "why not this feature..." and "Where is copy and paste?" etc. Is the level of these screams rises, Apple knows to raise its ranking in the order of priorities.

I still believe that Apple has a few tricks up it sleeve and we've haven't seen everything Steve Jobs will reveal in his SF Keynote as far as iPhone upgrades are concerned. If anything was revealed by the leaks, it is simply the tip of the iceberg.