Woz raps on Apple for lower ideals, locked iPhone, less innovative UI
By Conrad Quilty-Harper 
posted October 29th 2007 11:58PM
posted October 29th 2007 11:58PM
Joining a growing crowd of people to complain about the general lack of openness in the iPhone is none other than Steve Wozniak, co-founder of the company. Woz has a reputation for being critical of the company he helped create, although no-one would argue that his views are unreasonable: in an interview he calls into question Apple's treatment of the iPhone as an appliance, and not as a computer platform designed to allow users to install their own apps at will ("I'm really for the unlockers, the rebels trying to make it free.") He also took a dig at Leopard, saying that OSes aren't what sell computers these days, and that OS updates today are nothing more than slow improvements, rather than a procession towards a UI that works "for someone who knows nothing about the computer." Personally, we think these are fair viewpoints: as much as we may hate to say it, a lot of new technology these days requires a compromise. Isn't it about time compromise took a back seat?[Thanks, Jame]
Indeed,
Just like the protest video Engadget posted about before. The "crazy ones", the "rebels".
Scott
link: http://www.engadget.com/2007/09/30/iphone-protest-vid-uses-apples-own-words-to-support-the-crazy/
Yeah, like Steve Jobs and I having fun with a phone system once.
No, that's not what I mean. I just want a computer in my hand that I can adapt and take places, take places with software. I would love it. The fun and cool apps. Some apps might even have value but that's secondary. It's the open source philosophy I guess.
How can my own small ringtone file, transferred to the iPhone, endanger the network? I don't mind paying a lot for the phone but leave me some small bits to do myself for free if I'm capable.
Wozniak is pretty much spot on with his assessment here. The post-iPhone Apple is a completely different beast compared to the Apple Computer we used to idolize. Steve Jobs is no longer merely a victim of his infamous "reality distortion field", he now controls it with an iron fist, casting aside anyone that gets in the way... including the most loyal of customers. It's like watching a dictator becoming uncontrollably drunk with power in their last hour. Eventually, something has to give. If left unchecked for too much longer, we're going to see an uprising on the order of the French Revolution directed at Apple on almost every front.
I'm going to toss my hat in the ring on this one and make a bold prediction... Steve Jobs will be ousted again in 2008 in favor of the next Phil Schiller! Just watch...
Woz! Think different! ;D
http://www.macgroup.org/images/wozmeeting102200/membersupplied/images/Woz-ThinkDifferent.jpg
Woz was - Jobs is - lets move on.
SNAKE'S FRUIT is now the size of a dreadnought - if they are at all changing directions - it's going to take a long time - but the average consumer has been programmed to buy anything bearing the SNAKE'S FRUIT logo - ask anyone what MP3 means - then ask them what an iPOD is - Jobs is following Gates.
Just keep on sending Jobs an email reminding him what you want in the next update or product - eventually something will change - for better or worse, we don't know yet.
I admire Woz for what he's done, but this strikes me as sour grapes. What the heck did he expect to happen? If he had wanted Apple to be better than it is, he should have manned up and stayed with the company instead of bailing.
Fair but a little unbalanced...I think Woz is spot on with these comments but Jobs has apparently learned much during his "Sabbatical" from Apple. Compromise must take a backseat to earnings per share. The company first has to make money or there will be no capital to invest in new products in the first place. If you look carefully at Apples moves, especially with the iPhone and also in it's moves with DRM/non-DRM music. You will see they are trying to please both the user and the their partners almost at the same time. First they please the partner, AT$T, no unlocking,no third party apps, no no no. Then some time later when the popularity of the product or service has taken off they turn to the partner and say...Seee, we told you so. Then they open up a little bit. This is all a game for Apple ladies and gentlemen. A well orchestrated game to maximize profit. Sorry Woz, but appliances make profit, not platforms. Now excuse I need to go trick out my fridge.
The iphone is not anything special. What does it do that a cheaper windows based pda phone can't do?
As their first product, Woz and Jobs built tone boxes for hacking long distance phone service. His line of thinking today does not surprise me.
Woz's opinions on what makes for a successful product in the market were relevant 30 years ago. Not so much now. What was the last product he launched?
you cant have it both ways people either apple survives and actually, gasp makes a buck and compromises in the implementation of their products, or they will drift in to obscurity which is where they were headed prior to the re-arrival of Jobs. Woz's sentiment may be fun to latch onto in the abstract (who wouldnt want to be the rebel throwing stones at the windows of Apple Inc) but if you aren't out to make some money, you can't continue to innovate and bring products to market. The iPhone was an innovation that other companies are still trying to catch up with, and Leopard is a fine OS which plenty of people (2 mil as of today) seem to feel is worth the price tag. If those 2 million people truly feel duped by the reality distorition machine they wont pony up the next time around I assure you.
Bottom line: If they are not innovating the free market will find someone new to "think different," but for now that has not happened.
By this logic, do you mean to say that /you/ have even less of an idea what makes a succesful product?
What you seem to be implying is that one must work at Apple, and single-handedly launch a product, to understand how things work.
I agree. Software upgrades always make the apps (or OS) more complicated, not easier to use.
test
I am really tired of people throwing around the same old "for someone who knows nothing about the computer."
At this point in time is there really anyone out there that knows nothing about a computer? My 80 year old grandfather uses a computer as well as my 4 year old nephew. Who are these people Woz and others are claiming are so clueless that they need to be hand-held through a UI? Sure we need it to be friendly, but treating users like complete morons is only going to frustrate users as time goes on.
Nice to hear Woz be open about this. Maybe dating comedian Kathy Griffin has done some good for him.
woz is totally humping kathy griffin.
i don't think i can take him as seriously anymore. sorry.
(unfortunately, though, he's right, although apple's not nearly the only one doing it with the iphone and leopard. every phone/OS does it.)
There should be a Steve Wozniak for every fanboy-attracting company :)
He brings it all into perspective, silencing "fanboys" and "haters" alike...
Oh, and Brad, Vista /does not/ have bigger fonts. Microsoft's user inter interface toolkit is too dumb for that to happen without a revolution. (Or a switch to GTK. Whichever comes first).
And what besides criticism does Woz bring to the table? What has he done lately? Its very easy to throw stones from the outside. Going around playing Segway polo and flashing fancy steel business cards is fun and all, but what aside from sleeping on your laurels have you done lately? Put up or shut up Woz.
why, oh why cant jobs and wozniak switch places? Apple would be so much better with Woz at its front. I mean imagine it.....
well, a guy can dream.....
Check out an article I wrote on my blog on this subject!
www.ablogtoread.com
As a product enthusiast I tend to have very strong opinions regarding how a company presents itself. Marketing and sales tactics, while not necessarily consumer friendly conversation is one of the most important parts of doing business. We have all had good and bad experiences with a company, for no business is perfect. However, when a company imbues anti-consumer sentiment right into their sales method and product development, I get really pissed off.
So is the case with my continuing dislike (verging on hatred) of Apple. I will forgo talking about many of the things I like to point out that Apple does wrong and stick with the iPhone for this conversation. Apple really turned something that should have been really exciting into a pain.
Last week while at a trade show I was lucky enough to win an 8gb iPhone via a fish bowl business card drawing. I was very surprised to say that least, and it was ironic, because not a week before I had signed up with AT&T. Because I loved the phone I bought (HTC Kasier, AT&T branded), I did not want to return it for the subpar iPhone. Instead I thought I could swap SIM cards between the two and use one or the other from time to time. Today I walked into the AT&T store to discuss this idea. Now I want to sell or dontate the iPhone to science.
To activate (not buy or get discount, but merely USE) the iPhone you need:
1. To agree to a new 2 year contract or contrat extension with AT&T
2. Sign up for a special (around $40 a month) iPhone data plan not compatible with any other data plans or phones, which further disallows use of other, better, and similarly priced data plans.
3. Use and install iTunes to activate the phone.
4. Be locked in to only iTunes for all your syncing needs.
5. Be limited to EDGE speed for the life of the phone.
6. Succumb to a dead phone (brick) if you try to install any third party software.
Essentially you need to be a slave to Apple, use what it tells you to use, and NOTHING else. Check all the message boards for signs of other’s chagrin.
I bring this all up to display not only a frustrating set of circumstances, but a triumph of profit forward - consumer backward thinking. I am not so naive as to misunderstand the rationale of the Apple executives sitting in their buttonless offices with finger prints everywhere. No, it is more the attitude of the consumer which distresses me. No matter how oppressive Apple gets, people keep purchasing their product; which is not even that good. Apple makes no secrets that the iPod exists to lock people into using iTunes. Of course the iPhone would function the same way. It boggles my mind why people keep putting up with this. Apple, the one time underdog, is now at the forefront of monopolistic behavior. As such, they have consistently been sued in Europe with little remorse. In fact, then simply said they would not sell iTunes music in various countries that be forced to allow other MP3 players to access the music files. Another example is that Apple has been forced to unlock iPhones in France. Kudos to the French for not putting up with them. Apple needs to learn that the very behavior it tried to subvert, it is not the prime purveyor of.
Increasingly, Apple is proving that is does not care about consumer sentiments and more and more tech people are moving away from Apple use. Those users who allowed Apple to be were it is today have been cast-off, legions of “mainstream” users in their place who buy into Apple’s “form over function approach” to product development and narketing. It is only a matter of time before they fully cannibalize their own image and people realize there really is not that much behind the gloss screen and option-less facade.
I enjoy my fare share of critics on this note, but I will take my HTC Kasier which fully supports as much third party software as I can thorw into it as possible, over an iPhone any day. I want to know that I will have the option of fixing something myself rather than having to pay Apple an enormous amount of money to do it. I want to know that the products I buy are designed to be used by me, not instead to use me. For all that, I take this iPhone I so luckily won, sitting in it’s box unopened, as useless as a brick.
www.ablogtoread.com