Jobs lauds Gates exit, disses Amazon's Kindle

Steve Jobs may not look this young anymore, but he still has some opinions he'd like to share

Coming down off his keynote speech, Steve Jobs had the time to talk with a few publications to shed some light on the major news stories affecting the tech world today and to bid Bill Gates farewell.

Even though they have made a few public displays of affection recently, Jobs and Gates have a well known distaste for each other that dates back more than twenty years. That said, Apple's CEO still found time to say at least a few nice things about the outgoing Microsoft founder.

Jobs plays nice with Billy

"Bill's retiring from Microsoft is a big deal," Jobs told the New York Times. "It's a significant event, and I think he should be honoured for the contributions he's made."

In the same interview, Jobs told reporters that Apple went through 100 design prototypes of the MacBook Air before making the final decision and claimed that Amazon could have some trouble selling its Kindle.

Do you read anymore?

"It doesn't matter how good or bad the product is, the fact is that people don't read anymore," he said. "Forty per cent 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."

Yikes. Evidently they listen to music and watch movies nowadays, right Steve?