Steve Wozniak: Apple Isn’t “Changing the World” Any More

Steve Wozniak – who, alongside Steve Jobs, co-founded Apple – thinks that his former company is not the one he and Jobs set up, is no longer “changing the world” like it once was, and that the Apple Watch merely a vanity item.

During an AMA on reddit, Wozniak – affectionately known as ‘Woz’ – was asked how he thought Tim Cook, the current CEO of Apple, was doing in the role. While Woz was complimentary about Cook’s support for both employees and customers of Apple, he criticised its current business model for following trends, rather than setting (or, as some may accuse the company, ‘stealing’) them:

Woz wrote:

“Tim Cook is acknowledging the employees of Apple and the customers of Apple as real people. 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.

I worry a little bit about – I mean I love my Apple Watch, but – it’s taken us into a jewelry market where you’re going to buy a watch between $500 or $1100 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 $1100. 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.

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. 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.”

Woz says he’s very supportive of Apple in its fight against the FBI, though, and believes that backdoors in encrypted systems are too much of a risk, writing, “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.”

Image courtesy of TechnoBuffalo.