When Apple CEO Steve Jobs says “Never”, he really does mean Never.

Sometimes.

That’s the conclusion reached by Bobbie Johnson, Guardian.co.uk‘s tech correspondent. It’s not that Johnson thinks Jobs is a liar. It’s just that “he has a history of making categorical statements which are eventually overturned.”

That’s why Johnson is skeptical when Apple vows it will never produce an e-book reader. Not even after Jobs’s fatuous dictum that “People don’t read anymore.” Here is what he said at Apple’s annual iPod Show. “I’m sure there will always be dedicated devices, and they may have a few advantages in doing just one thing. But I think the general-purpose devices will win the day. Because I think people just probably aren’t willing to pay for a dedicated device.”

That’s probably true if you ignore sales of a little gadget called the Kindle. It’s also true as long as you’re not a student trying to read a complex equation or scientific formula on a six inch square iPhone screen, as we recently pointed out (iPhone Cramps Digital Textbooks).

So, perhaps we can be forgiven for looking at Jobs’s disclaimers with a jaundiced eye.

Captains of industry say “Never” all the time while crossing fingers behind their backs. In some cases it’s strategic: they’re shrewdly misdirecting their competitors’ gaze while secretly developing the very product they swear will never see the light of day. In other cases their “Never” is sincere – at least until unforeseen technological advances or radical shifts in consumer taste belie all those pubic denials. In Job’s case it’s a little bit of both.

Johnson produces a litany of Jobs’s repudiations that have come back to bite him. In 2004, he said that Apple wasn’t working on a video iPod. A year later – video on the iPod. In 2005 an Apple exec declared the company had no interest in going into the phone market. Two years later – iPhone. And remember Jobs’s rejection of FM as an iPod feature? Check what’s on the Nano. “And then there is the almost mythical tablet Mac,” writes Johnson. It’s “something that Jobs has denied for years, but that numerous, well-sourced reports have said is all but certain in the coming months.”

So, when Jobs says “Never” on a dedicated e-book reader, Johnson asks “Should we believe him?”

We don’t, and we said so last winter. Read Will Steve Jobs Eat His Words with Ketchup, Mustard or Mayo?

RC