David Pogue interviews Steve Jobs on Kindles, iPod Touch Cameras and Ice Cream

Seth Weintraub
|
September 09, 2009
|
Share

David Pogue, who has been criticized recently for conflicts of interest with his Times job and Missing Manual books, had an opportunity to speak with Steve Jobs after the event.  He asked him about the Amazon Kindle, his weight, production while he was gone and some other stuff.  Not a lot, but some very candid information.  It seems like they might post a video of the conversation soon as well.  Our fav:

Pogue: It’s great to see you back! How are you feeling these days?
Jobs: I feel great. I probably need to gain about 30 pounds, but I feel really good. I’m eating like crazy. A lot of ice cream.
 

Comments (15)

9to5Mac Noob (not verified) | September 09, 2009 - 6:34pm

Ummmm... is there any more to this article? Seems something's missing.

9to5Mac Noob (not verified) | September 09, 2009 - 7:13pm

it's in an in-context-link above, but here you go: http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/09/09/in-qa-steve-jobs-snipes-at-amaz...

9to5Mac Noob (not verified) | September 09, 2009 - 8:08pm

well, the "read more" link is broken.

9to5Mac Noob (not verified) | September 09, 2009 - 10:30pm

Is Jobs kidding when he says "it’s the lowest-cost way to the App Store, and that’s the big draw"? Can you imagine how many more apps would be sold if the Touch had GPS, Camera, Video, tethering, 3g wireless?

But far worse is Jobs' comment: "We don’t need to add new stuff". I NEVER thought that I would ever hear that from Jobs nor Apple.
Does this mean that Apple is going to stop innovation and just worry about the bottom line and how many items they can sell?

The only reasons I can possible think of for Apple to so limit the Touch is the possibility that the iPhone will soon be available to a wider range of customers on a wider range of cell phone carriers and Apple makes a lot more money selling iPhones then Touches. Thus again it is all about money instead of selling the best product.

Apple has just proved that it cannot function without Jobs. They should re-name the company Jobs for Apple cannot exist without him.

9to5Mac Noob (not verified) | September 09, 2009 - 11:42pm

I agree!!! Who is Apple trying to fool? They have one guy saying that they will not enter the Netbook market because Apple doesn't produce cheap products. Then you have another saying that with the Touch they are trying to produce a cheap product.

I will be dumping Apple from my investments this week.

Your comment that Jobs is Apple and without Jobs the company will fail has been proven once again. I just wish Steve would have told the truth and not tried to cover up with such a glaring lie.

9to5Mac Noob (not verified) | September 10, 2009 - 4:45am

You've got yourself all confused here.

There's a big difference between Apple saying they won't make a cheap, low-quality product (as they suggested a netbook Mac would be at current netbook prices), and what was said here about "getting the price down to where everyone can afford it".

With the iPod Touch, it started out as a more expensive product ($299), but as with all such things, over time production costs come down, and the price can be lowered. Quite often, this drop is negated by improving specs - so a $500 laptop this year is better than a $500 last year. But with the 8Gb Touch, rather than adding stuff to keep it around the same price, they're trying to keep it around the $199 mark which they reckon is "where everyone can afford to buy it". If you want to spend more, the higher-capacity ones are there, but if you can't afford more, you've still got the entry-level one.

Now, if the Touch had been launched at $199 to begin with, chances are it would have been a poor-quality product - and THAT'S what Apple have said they won't do.

9to5Mac Noob (not verified) | September 10, 2009 - 5:01am

You did a nice job trying to desperately cover for Apple.

To follow your reasoning you cannot explain why then Apple didn't take the iPhone path of selling a 3G and 3GS models.

Apple could have simply sold an entry level Touch. Then added improved Touch's.

Also are you going defend Apple selling the 64GB for $200 more then the 8GB? For that additional $200 you should get a lot more then a memory increase. Hell the Zune HD will have 4X the memory for the same price as the 8GB Touch. Plus the Zune HD has better graphics output. Thankfully Apple is far ahead with Apps and iTunes.

9to5Mac Noob (not verified) | September 10, 2009 - 6:43am

You're still missing the point. First off, Apple are doing the 3G/3GS thing with Touches - there's the cheap 8Gb Touch (like the cheap 3G iPhone) and then there are the more expensive Touches, equivalent to the 3GS in this example, with better specs.

Second, if you mean that Apple could have started off with a low spec Touch and also more expensive high-spec ones, I suspect they thoguht that would have just confused matters - indeed, from what I can tell, historically Apple have only had low-spec devices at the same time as high-spec ones when the low-spec one is actually just the previous version (e.g. Unibody MacBooks and White MacBooks, iPhone 3GS and iPhone 3G, iPod Touch etc).

And whilst I have no desire to defend Apple for anything (don't get me started on how my iPhone 3G performance has sucked since OS3 was applied), looking at the cost of, say, a decent 64Gb Flash drive and bearing in mind the improved processor in the 64Gb Touch, the price increase isn't entirely unrealistic - in the UK it's a £150 difference, I would have thought £120ish would have been more reasonable but then I don't know if there are other changes that justify the cost.

As for the Zune having more memory for the price - other manufacturers need some way of convincing people to buy their stuff instead of the (arguably more well-known) iPod, price is as good a way as any.

But anyway, the point remains that there is a big difference between "Making a low quality product to begin with in order to be able to sell it cheap" and "being able to sell an existing product for less than it was to begin with". That's what I'm trying to say.

9to5Mac Noob (not verified) | September 10, 2009 - 1:06am

Sure I won't be the only one to make this comment, but the nub of your point is that Apple would do really well if it had a product that was like an iPod Touch but with "GPS, Camera, Video, tethering, 3g wireless"?

9to5Mac Noob (not verified) | September 10, 2009 - 4:52am

iPhone has sold 30 million units and the Touch has sold 20 million.

For Apple not to keep the features of the Touch compatible with the current iPhone is a marketing blunder.

If MSFT cuts the price of the Zune HD it will hurt sales of the Touch.

With Apple stating that iPod sales are down why Apple would fail to improve the Touch is unfathomable.

The fanboys can scream all they want but you will see Apple stock decrease. It seems Apple is betting the farm on the mythical tablet. A product that most do not see a market for.

9to5Mac Noob (not verified) | September 10, 2009 - 7:36am

if the Touch had GPS, Camera, Video, tethering, 3g wireless

They have that: you exactly describe the iPhone.

I'm pretty sure that Apple is sticking to its strategy. The touch will eventually acquire all those things (except tethering and 3G). But it makes sense for the Touch not to "one-up" the iPhone, or "one-up" the Zune before the Zune HD release.

I'd expect the touch to get a major upgrade within the next 15 months - after the new Zune is released and the new iPhone comes out.

BTW, Tethering sucks. I recently had that on my Verizon Blackberry. I found it to be slow and unreliable. WIFI is generally a much better choice if available. I ended up canceling my Verizon tethering plan. Perhaps "4G" devices will be better, but I'm not holding my breath.

9to5Mac Noob (not verified) | September 10, 2009 - 2:37am

Well.. To me it sound like they're EOL the Touch sometime in the near future. They just don't add stuff and concetrate the innovation on the iPhone. I've had this feeling for a while that new stuff on the Touch was just beta-testing for the iPhone in a way. Jobs said himself: 'the Touch is trainingwheels for the iPhone." Sure, he meant the customers, but Apple's approuch to the Touch feels like the same way.

For now, the Touch is a cash cow to Apple. And you do with a cash cow what the BCG-matrix tells you to. You profit, and you concentrate on a market where you can grow more steep: not the dedicated devices, but the general-purpose devices. Because: "I think the general-purpose devices will win the day."

9to5Mac Noob (not verified) | September 10, 2009 - 1:58pm

I agree with you that the Touch may have seen its last refresh.

It makes no sense that Apple would put a camera in a $150 Nano but not in a $400 Touch.

Apple has fumbled and given the Zune a chance at life.

If Apple would have put out a Touch model that is an iPhone without the phone, Zune HD would have been dead on arrival.

To say that the Touch is a gaming machine is a joke. Has anyone at Apple ever used a the DSI? It has two screens, wifi, camera, ect. To be honest it blows my 2G Touch away at gaming. Nintendo also has an installed base of 100 million DS users and a huge game library.

If this really is all about a manufacturing problem Apple has a real problem. This is year three of the Touch and is basically the same machine invented and manufactured three years ago.

Anyway you slice it this will not help the already declining iPod sales.

Erik (not verified) | September 10, 2009 - 4:06am

We have some really good stuff coming up

9to5Mac Noob (not verified) | September 10, 2009 - 8:47am

We heard that there were issues with the iPod Touch and cameras. The "We want it to be a cheap way into the App Store" excuse seems like a cop out. I think they will roll out the camera iPod Touch in October, with the tablet.