Why Steve Jobs Chose ‘Winnie the Pooh’ for the iBooks Launch in 2010

With Apple executive Eddy Cue on the stand in the company’s court case involving the Department of Justice over alleged accusations of price fixing, more details have emerged about the iBooks launch and Steve Jobs. 

AllThingsD reports with Cue on the stand yesterday, Apple lawyers asked him to discuss more about his late boss, Steve Jobs. In particular, we learn why the late Apple co-founder decided to have A. A. Milne’s Winnie the Pooh as the initial iBooks app freebie plus more. Here are some tidbits revealed (we previously learned Jobs was initially against the iBookstore idea):

  • The “page curls” in the iBook app, which show up when you flip an iBook’s page? That’s Steve Jobs’s idea.
  • It was Jobs’s idea to pick “Winnie-the-Pooh” as the freebie book that came with every iBook app. Not just because Jobs liked the book, Cue said, but because it showed off iBook’s capabilities: “It had beautiful colour drawings, that had never been seen before in a digital book.”
  • Jobs was also specific about the book he used to show off the iBook during his initial iPad demo in January 2010. He picked Ted Kennedy’s “True Compass” memoir, because the Kennedy family “meant a lot to him,” Cue said.

Also, according to CNET, Cue also revealed Apple has roughly 25 percent of the ebook market, the same as Barnes & Noble, adding both companies often flip flop with the ranking, with the latter usually having a higher share than Apple.

The case is set to wind down this week with closing arguments scheduled for Thursday. There is no word whether any of this new information will have any influence on the trial’s outcome, but it sure is interesting. 

P.S. - Like our news? Support the site with a coffee/beer. Or shop with our Amazon link. We use affiliate links when possible--thank you for supporting independent media.