Yesterday, Steve Jobs claimed that Apple's iBookstore now accounts for 22% of all e-book sales. The New York Times has some trouble with these figures, calling them "meaningless":
Alan Weiner, an analyst at Gartner, wrote that Mr. Jobs had used âsome sort of voodoo algorithm.â He added: âItâs an interesting number, but I donât necessarily think thereâs a lot of credibility in it.âStill, Mr. Jobs said that iPad owners downloaded over five million books in the last two months, or 2.5 books per iPad. Although it is not clear how many of these books are free, this is still a troubling trend for Amazon.
Meanwhile, Walter Mosley loves his iPad:
I love reading things electronically. For some reason it comforts me. I just got my iPad and I love it to death. There are so many things that it can do. Weâre going to save the lives of many trees. The written wisdom of Ronald Reagan doesnât need to be on paper. Most cookbooks, self-help books, and how to books [would be] better in electronic form. Some things, like the Bible, you need both.