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Woz 'approves' Tim Cook, 'worries' about Apple Watch in interview
Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak told online audiences today that he is very happy with the progress of Apple hardware and software. He further said that he approves of Tim Cook and especially of how the company continues the tradition of aiming to make good products. However, he told the readers of Reddit.com that he worries about what the Apple Watch reveals of the company's future.
"I mean, I love my Apple Watch, but it's taken us into a jewellery market where you're going to buy a watch between $500 or $1,100 based on how important you think you are as a person," he said on Reddit's Ask Me Anything subforum. "The only difference is the band in all these watches."
"Twenty watches from $500 to $1,100. Well, this isn't the company that Apple was originally, or the company that really changed the world a lot." Wozniak did acknowledge, however, that Apple has to follow the market and its customers.
Wozniak's AMA appearance has come just as the company he co-created is engaged in a contentious dispute with the FBI over allowing access to secure iPhones. When asked about his position, Woz drew on his computing experience: "Twice in my life I wrote things that could have been viruses. I threw away every bit of source code. I just got a chill inside. These are dangerous, dangerous things, and if some code gets written in an Apple product that lets people in, bad people are going to find their way to it, very likely.
The AMA discussion is over but you can pick your way through the transcript on Reddit.
Wozniak took part in the AMA the day after a video in the site's Formative series was released. In the episode, Wozniak talks about when he built a machine for playing Tic Tac Toe, his first experiences with microprocessors, and offers advice to entrepreneurs creating new businesses.
Not sure why this reasonably smart guy who has opinions on things frequently gets portrayed as a coattail-riding has-been who claims to be some kind of guru.
For the record: although invention of the first truly personal computer and a number of extremely innovative engineering feats is what got Woz into the Inventors Hall of Fame, this is not all he's ever done. He's been Chief Scientist for a number of firms, and has his name on all kinds of patents over the last 30 years. While he will never top what he did with Jobs, it is both false and misleading to say he's done nothing since. His wiki page has a partial list of his accomplishments, and anyone calling him a "has-been" would do well to compare even just his post-Apple career against their own lives and achievements.
So far, I'd say I agree with Woz on the Apple Watch. I can see how some might like it, and there are some vertical market type applications. But, as much as I'd like to want one (as an Apple fan and tech gadget geek), I can't really think of a use for it at this point. If it every becomes independent (enough) from the phone, I suppose that might start to shift my thinking, but currently, if I need the phone along anyway, I just don't see the point (for me). (I'm not sure how big the 'pull phone out, get mugged' thing still is in cities... but even when that was the news headline, I don't think it was ever *that* prevalent.)
But, as Woz also notes, that's not to say Apple shouldn't have made it. I'm just kind of contrasting it against the initial media coverage and talks by Tim and such. I don't really think it's the next wave of much of anything. It's a cool accessory for a limited market or certain specific applications.
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