If you are at all interested in the e-book wars, you should read Ken Auletta's great piece in the New Yorker about how Apple took the wind out of Amazon's sails, and how Google might kneecap the both of them.
At the Yerba Buena Center, it took a while for Jobs to mention books, and when he did he said that âAmazon has done a great jobâ with its Kindle. âWeâre going to stand on their shoulders and go a little bit farther.â It would probably have been more accurate to say that Jobs planned to stand on Amazonâs neck and press down hard, with publishers applauding. The decision to enter publishing was a reversal for Jobs, who two years ago said that the book business was unsalvageable. âIt doesnât matter how good or bad the product is, the fact is that people donât read anymore,â he said. âForty per cent of the people in the U.S. read one book or less last year.â But if reading books was low on the list of things that the iPad could do, it was nonetheless on the list, which meant that Amazon had become a competitor. âThereâs a lot of heat between Apple and Amazon and Google,â an adviser to Jobs said. âSteve expresses contempt for everyoneâunless heâs controlling them.â An Apple insider said, âHe thinks Amazon is stupid, and made a terrible mistake insisting that books should be priced at $9.99.â
I especially like a joke that Auletta mentions, about how the second book printed on the Gutenberg press was about the death of the publishing industry.