By JESSICA MINTZ
AP Technology Writer
SEATTLE – The company whose CEO proclaimed in 2008 that people don’t read anymore may now be poised to sweep in and school the electronic book reader market.
That company is Apple Inc., and its CEO, Steve Jobs, was predicting Amazon.com Inc.’s Kindle would never take off. But if Apple’s talks with publishers are any indication, its “latest creation,” set to be unveiled Wednesday, could upend the fledgling e-reader industry in much the same way its iPod redefined digital music.
E-readers had been around since the beginning of the last decade, but in 2007 the Kindle advanced the concept by enabling books to be downloaded wirelessly rather than having to be plugged into a computer. Amazon has tried to push the device further into the mainstream by selling it for $259, down from the debut price of $399.