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Fri, 29 Jul 2005 "Customers aren't stupid" - Jobs

Macworld staff

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Apple CEO Steve Jobs doesn't believe music lovers are stupid enough to pay premium prices for mobile music downloads.

The AlwaysOn network has published the second part of its transcript of what Jobs said during the Wall Street Journal's (WSJ) 'D: All things digital" event in May, 2005 - and this week's episode looks at Apple, the iPod and mobile phones.

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Discussing mobile networks attempts to build music download services, Jobs is scathing on price, saying: "They're going to try to sell music at $2 and $3 a song for the phone."

"It's hard to imagine that customers are that stupid," he said.

He criticized what he expects will be a, "lousy buying experience", and points out that despite all the new features mobile networks (who dominate discussions with manufacturers) demand in their handsets, customer spending is not rising significantly.

Discussing the Motorola/Apple phone, Jobs confirms the device will not download songs across mobile networks, but will import tracks directly from a Mac or a PC.

WSJ technology columnist Walt Mossberg asked if Apple has plans to launch its own mobile network to bypass existing mobile network carriers, Jobs only replies: "When an industry gets more and more competitive, there's usually not room for a lot of hands in the till."

Mossberg also raises the conceit that music and mobile phones will "move together" in future.

In customary style, Jobs would only reveal that he understands the question "thoroughly", "I'm going to leave the answer to our actions in the future", he said.

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