Woz thinks Android will win; says Apple tried, failed to launch a smartphone in 2004

By on Nov 18, 2010 at 8:10 AM
mobile November 18, 2010

As is commonplace when Steve Wozniak gives an interview, the Internet was buzzing Thursday morning with snippets from a chat Woz had with Dutch newspaper De Telegraph. On Apple, Wozniak spoke of the company’s failed first attempt to build a cell phone. Apple collaborated with a well-known Japanese consumer electronics company in 2004, and the partnership yielded a phone. The Apple co-founder said that while the company was happy with the hardware, the project ended up being scrapped because the company “wanted something that could amaze the world.” Despite continued leadership and successful efforts in new areas, Wozniak went on to call Nokia a “brand of the previous generation.” Android, which he compared to the Windows PC platform, would ultimately end up winning the smartphone wars and become the mobile leader. “Android phones have more features,” said Woz, and the ever-increasing variety means there will be something for everyone.

[Via Engadget]

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  • Neoprimal

    He was misquoted. lol

  • Ebatr8

    Its pretty rediculous to argue that apple is winning because they make the most money from there handsets. They may be winning the phone war but they are losing the OS war and that is more important because people will continue to get tempted by every newer and better handset that keeps coming out with android. More choices may not equal more profit for manufacturers but it means more options for consumers more chances to tempt would be customers and more chances to steal customers from the competition at the end of the day google is the real winner because no matter what OS your on most people when they think search they think google

  • Booboolala2000

    I wouldn’t say its dominating. A report came out last week and the percentages of iphone users that would buy another iphone was like 75%. The android users were around 73%. If you take the number of users, android has a larger piece of the pie already so the negligible difference means androids rate will remain increasing for at least the next couple of years.
    Plus, Woz ending comment about even a crappy os can dominate marketshare, that is a two way street. Ios crappy os leader for two years. Android, updates are usually meaningful and set new standards.

  • V for Vendetta

    Commentators, bloggers even major publications love to compare Apple to Google because both are extremely innovative companies. I can understand if you compare a particular Android device to the iPhone, but when we start to generalize that Android is winning against iOS, it isn’t apples to apples comparison (no pun intended:).
    Both companies have completely different business models. Google gives Android away for free but makes money from the ads they sell over it. Brining an Android phone to market involves many players and they split the revenues generated. Apple is a very focused company that keeps its products strictly aligned with its vision. They might bear all the cost of bringing the product to market but then they keep all the profits as well. They have never been a volume sales company but their profit margins are huge.
    You can compare Apple to HTC to some extent. Hardware wise they are direct competitors and HTC extensively customizes the OS, but OS development costs for Apple are higher than HTC. But for that Apple can sell ads on iOS and keep the revenues while HTC cannot.
    Woz is right, Android will out sell iOS, but no one will be able to beat Apple on profitability.

    By the way I love my HTC Incredible

  • http://twitter.com/hijackerjack Rohil Thopu

    Who cares about winning..

    Android and Apple are both winners.. I love them both.. both have goods, both have bads.

    Get over it.

    lawl.

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