He's been doing this for years. I know several people that have gotten terse, 3 or 4 word responses to him. It's only recently that the press and the bloggers have noticed this.
He's been doing short emails for years, and the occasional open letter, but it seems that he's doing it a lot more as of late.
Presumably in response to all the recent Apple controversy.
Either that or more people are posting/linking them.
Yeah, 5-10 years ago no one except the niche community of Mac users and developers was following Apple this closely. It's almost hard to remember how small Apple's influence had gotten by the time of Steve's return - before the iMac, iPod, iPhone, or iPad. How many people even remember products like "Performa" or "eMate"?
I had the same thought. I think its because he wants to get "Sent from my iPad" on the internet on as many web pages and into as many minds as possible. Its a marketing ploy.
Ah, that's why they're so short!
I figured it was the soft keyboard on the iPad, forcing the author to be as concise as possible since it is such a pain to type on.