Though still a staunch Apple supporter, Steve Wozniak isn’t afraid to critique the company he once helped to form. And sometimes his suggestions can be a little outlandish. Such as suggesting Apple should make an Android phone.
Speaking at the Apps World North America conference in San Francisco, Wozniak sees no reason why the Cupertino company can’t “play in two arenas at the same time”, those of iOS and Android, and be successful in doing so.
“There’s nothing that would keep Apple out of the Android market as a secondary phone market. We could compete very well.”
Hmm, we can think of many reasons keeping them out of the Android market, Woz! From a consumer’s point of view, Wozniak certainly has a point. He’s right in saying that people “like the precious stylings and manufacturing” that sets Apple’s premium-feeling devices apart. Pairing that with the freedom of the Android operating system would be a dream come true for many smartphone fans, and it’s technically not impossible given its open source nature.
But considering the success of the iPhone and iOS ecosystem (and the less-than-friendly rivalry between Apple and Google), you’ve got more chance of seeing Steve Jobs rise from the grave and announce Flash video as his “Favourite Thing Ever” than see an Apple handset running Google’s OS.
More reasonable is Wozniak’s support of Apple’s incremental improvements to its smartphone range. Wozniak specifically picks out Samsung’s kitchen-sink approach to features as being unnecessary: