Will Apple Build The Safari Pad?

The New York Times is running an article probing Apple and the possibility of its building a "Safari pad", basically a larger version of the iPod Touch more suitable for multimedia, internet browsing, and... reading.

Like most discussions on the subject, this one makes note of a comment made by Steve Jobs when the Kindle was announced. "Forty percent of the people in the U.S. read one book or less last year. The whole conception is flawed at the top because people don’t read anymore."

While it's true that Steve has been known to say one thing and do another ("no one wants to watch video on an iPod"), I find his book reading comment to be very interesting and highly informative for one simple reason: turn it around, and it says that sixty percent of the people in the U.S. read two books or more last year.

One hundred and eighty million readers? And just in the U.S.?

I don't know about you, but that sounds like one heck of a market to me.

[via NYT]

Comments

[Mike Cane]

Everyone horns in on me:

http://mikecane2008.wordpress.com/2008/03/03/for-the-record-apple-and-ebooks/

[Gerrit]

I'm searching for a "ditigal reader" since many years: >90% of my media consumption is reading (news to books). PocketPCs or iPhones (iPod Touch) are too small. TabletPCs too big. Subnotebooks get too heavy and big because of their keyboard and other stuff not necessary for reading. Kindle and other dedicated ebook-readers don't support email, rss, pdf (well) and I'm missing the backlight. I won't mind if it's Apple or anyone else: I'd buy a truly "digital reader" immediately.