Steve Wozniak, co-founder of Apple, said that he no longer recognises the company he helped build because of new products such as the Apple Watch.
Wozniak expressed concern about new markets Apple has been targeting with the Apple Watch in an Ask Me Anything (AMA) session on Reddit:
He said: “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.
“The only difference is the band in all those watches. Twenty watches from $500 to $1,100. The band’s the only difference? Well this isn’t the company that Apple was originally, or the company that really changed the world a lot.
“So it might be moving, but you’ve got to follow, you know. You’ve got to follow the paths of where the markets are. So, I love the software, and I love the hardware, and nothing’s letting me down. So I approve very strongly of Tim Cook and the new Apple. I dearly miss Steve Jobs too, but, that’s all.”
Other than concerns about the company’s move into producing smart watches Wozniak said that he is pleased with the company’s progress:
“Everything else, I’m very approving of Tim Cook, because every time we have a new iOS update, I’m very happy that it’s doing things that really affect people. Like transferring calls from my phone to my computer, etc. I really love even the Airplay, and all that.”
Wozniak approves of Tim Cook’s management style.
When asked how he felt about Tim Cook’s management style, Wozniak said:
“He is continuing a strong tradition that Steve Jobs was known for of making good products that help people do things they want to do in their life, and not taking the company into roads of, ‘Oh, we’ll make all our money like by knowing you and advertising to you.’ We’ll make good products. And you know, I started out as a hardware product guy, so I’m glad to see that.”
‘Car market’ makes total sense to Wozniak; referring to Apple’s reported self-driving car division.
“I think that we’re really going to improve life a lot with some of those things, and that’s where Apple likes to be. Basically making products that make a better world for the users. So the car market makes total sense to me for Apple, but the important thing is that I hope if they get off on a product, something that they could sell and make a lot of money for but is not “insanely great” as Steve jobs would say, Apple should drop it and start over.”
Wozniak voices his support for Apple in its battle with the FBI over encryption of data on iPhones.
“I come from the side of personal liberties. But there are also other problems,” said Wozniak.
“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.”