When one of the founders of the company says they're falling, don't get defensive. Woz says innovate. If he knew how to innovate it at this time, he probably would. But he needed Jobs to actually be productive with it, mind you.
I agree with Woz. I have ceased recommending iPhones for anyone at this time. They're not bad, but there's certainly better out there. If Apple fans could only admit that, we'd get a real swell apple phone, don't you think? You know, the "Never enough" approach for users rather than shareholders...
Well, let's not get TOO crazy here. I said I agreed with some things he said, and you are, in a way, kind of putting words in his mouth. He said he still stands in line for Apple products because they still make great products. I think that's pretty much a recommendation from Woz.
My point is that a lot of things that Android lovers (usually the more geeky users, and I mean that in a respectful way) think people would love on phones would really never get used that much. I work in the tech industry so I know a lot of computer geeks--they tend to like the customization options and the hackability of Android phones. But the standard user doesn't care about side loading apps or running CM7--they just want a cheap/free phone that can do Facebook and texting.
And another thing that kind of makes me crazy is that people make statements like this as if Google is innovating in leaps and bounds with Android. They really aren't. Android is in refinement stages now just like iOS. And that's great--Jelly Bean is probably the closest they've gotten to the smoothness of iOS, so good for them. But it's not like they're blowing our minds with new features every 10 minutes. Android is becoming a mature platform. The problem is that only a small percentage of users ever use their most recent OS, and Samsung is the only company making any money on Android, and that's including Google.
None of this has much to do with Woz's comment I guess, but I wish people would get real about what people truly want to do with their phones. I don't care if it's an iPhone or an Android phone, all I ever see *most* users doing with them is Facebook, texting, or playing games. All smartphones do these things now and they pretty much all do them well. The nerds fight over all the stuff that most users never use. A lot of people have latched on to the bigger screens because that is actually a feature they can see and use right away with no effort, and to me, that totally makes sense. THAT is the common phone user. "What can this thing do for me the second I pick it up and start using it?" That's the mindset most people have. The vocal minority of smartphone users (people that argue on forums because this is the kind of stuff they actually care about) have the mindset of, "How many hidden features and tricks does thing do that I can unlock or turn on to make it the Death Star of all phones?"
My criticism of Woz is not that he speaks his mind. My criticism is that his opinions often don't represent reality, and I think he tries to latch on to Apple sometimes as if he still works for them. I would not want him running Apple just because he created the Apple II. I certainly wouldn't mind him in some kind of creative role their, but definitely would not trust his decision making on a lot of things. I never attack people that use phones other than the iPhone (though Android users seem to verbally assault me all the time), and I honestly don't care what phone other people use. It's an argument that just as useless as talking politics and expecting the other person to change their mind if you present your case strongly enough. Completely pointless. So I really don't care what Woz thinks about the iPhone vs. Android. And that's my point I guess:
Woz hasn't worked for Apple in decades. As Apple moved on with bigger and better things, Woz insisted on continuing to work on the Apple II. Woz has never worked for any of the major players in the modern tech game. Not that that's a requirement to know what you're talking about, but his opinion on this stuff is just not something I take seriously any longer. He's irrelevant.