While writing his biography of late Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, Walter Isaacson had more access than most outsiders could ever dream of. It may be somewhat alarming to Apple fans, then, that he believes Google is more innovative than Apple and is better positioning itself to succeed moving forward. “Google buying Nest shows an amazingly strong, integrated strategy that Google has to connect all of our devices, all of our lives … the Internet of things is actually real, there are these devices we’re gonna want to have and Google’s going to get ahead of that game,” Isaacson said during an interview with CNBC picked up on Thursday by 9to5Mac. “The greatest innovation today is coming from Google. Fadell was one of the team that created the iPod. He was very deep into the Apple culture … when Apple was so innovative … Now Tony Fadell is going to Google because he’s part of the Nest deal”
Isaacson continued, noting his opinion that while Apple CEO Tim Cook has said on numerous occasions that the company has big things in the pipeline for 2014, Steve Jobs would want to already have the next big thing on the market.
“Steve Jobs was a disruptor,” Isaacson said. “I think that now Tim Cook has done this big thing in China, he’s got two things to do now: take over the company … In the late February shareholders meeting, they probably have to start thinking about who should be on the board next. This board is all Steve Jobs’ people. They aren’t exactly the Tim Cook fan club. Second, he’s got to say ‘What am I going to disrupt? Is it going to be wearables? Is it going to be a watch? Is it going to be TV?’ We ought to see, in 2014, Apple do something huge.”
A video of the CNBC interview is embedded below.
