News

'The Other Steve' Talks Intel Switch, iPod Company Spin-Off

Thursday, February 23rd, 2006 at 1:05 PM - by Staff

Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak recently spoke with The Globe and Mail's Peter Nowak about the company's recent resurgence, saying that he's not sold on using Intel processors and that the iPod division should perhaps be spun off. Mr. Nowak noted that Mr. Wozniak is still on Apple's payroll, although it's something done "just out of loyalty."

Of the switch to Intel processors, Mr. Wozniak said: "It's like consorting with the enemy. We've had this long history of saying the enemy is the big black-hatted guys, and they kind of represent evil. All of a sudden we're the same in this hardware regard, so it's a little hard to swallow your words from the past."

While he acknowledged that "Intel just did a very good logic design," compared to Motorola's recent effort, he still maintained: "If it wasn't needed, I would say we shouldn't do it. And I still have some questions as to how much it's needed."

Comparing the separate iPod and Macintosh divisions to Apple's Apple II and Macintosh divisions during the 80s, Mr. Wozniak said that the iPod has been a distraction to the company and might be better off as a wholly separate business entity. "We're a computer company, and we really think computers," he said. "Spinning off a separate division makes a whole lot of sense."

Regarding Microsoft's attempts to take down the iPod, Mr. Wozniak said: If they do it, they better do it excellent, excellent, excellent because the iPod sure is. Doing something weaker and somehow trying to use your size and market power . . . that's just not good [enough] if you don't turn out something superior."

He added: "Microsoft wants to get out of the whole image of the big, black Darth Vader evil guy. Innovation is probably going on within the company, because any time you put smart engineers in places eventually they wind up talking and innovating no matter how much you try to hold them back. I hope Microsoft improves and becomes more like Apple."

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LaurieF said:

member since 15 Jun 2001 with 3545 posts, TMO Forum Mod, send him a message or view his profile

Thu Feb 23, 2006 3:48 pm

The most minor of corrections: Peter Nowak actually writes for the New Zealand Herald; the story was picked up by the Globe and Mail later:

http://www.macobserver.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=43732

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Dreadnought said:

member since 01 Jan 2005 with 162 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Thu Feb 23, 2006 4:23 pm

What - no mention of his red, his blue, his green and now his yellow laser?

The more I listen or read what Woz has to say, the more I realise he is so completely out of touch with reality. I wonder if he held the same opinion when Apple switched from Motorola to IBM in 1993 - talk about getting into bed with the Devil!

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A guest said: (hide)

Thu Feb 23, 2006 5:38 pm

Dreadnought wrote:
What - no mention of his red, his blue, his green and now his yellow laser?

The more I listen or read what Woz has to say, the more I realise he is so completely out of touch with reality. I wonder if he held the same opinion when Apple switched from Motorola to IBM in 1993 - talk about getting into bed with the Devil!

Ok, now to be fair the PPC transition wasn't a switch to IBM per se; the three companies formed the backbone of the PPC consortium, and both companies provided processors at different points for Apple.

I do agree that Woz is out of touch though. His comments strike me as similar in nature to a linux geek who believes Linux is ready to be a desktop for the masses; he is confusing the way he wishes things were or should be with how they are.

It does feel a little hypocritical though when I think of the snail and clean-suit ads Apple ran to stress the performance gap between G3 and Pentium processors. The thing is though, those ads were true, at the time Moto and IBM were turning out faster chips than Intel on a per clockcycle basis. What has really ended this game has to be the strength of Intel's compliers and development; they have a huge lead over everybody, including AMD, in that area. Think about the G4 and Altivec, it was a great technology but coding for it was hard, and with a small installed base, only a fraction of whom would ever need or want Altivec-enabled apps, you see what happened. In contrast, there are tons of apps that took advantage of Pentium features such as MMX. I think that, on top of all the other issues that lead Apple to abandon IBM, is why we're at this junction.

As for iPods being spun off, I'm opposed to it for a couple of reasons. First, Apple has managed to build incredible brand strength because of iPods, and separating them into some type of "iPod inc" couldn't help but weaken that. Second, while it was a slightly different situation and certainly a different market, look what has happened with Claris/Filemaker Inc, the last company that apple spun off. While Filemaker still exists, separating it from Apple has resulted in a lower marketshare and a virtually non-existent mindshare; I actually love it over all other database programs for its simplicity and versatility, but everybody uses the loathsome MS Access, in part because its a Microsoft branded product.

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A guest said: (hide)

Thu Feb 23, 2006 7:21 pm

Y'all need to realize that Mr. Wozniak suffered Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) from a [small] plane crash landing in Scotts Valley, California (off Highway 17 between San Jose & Santa Cruz). His front temporal areas were damaged; mostly on the left side.

If you ever saw Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous in the 80's, and saw Robin Leech interview Mr. Wozniak; Mr. Wozniak bought all the colors of the Hard-Rock Cafe T-Shirt and "organized" them by color and size.

So, ya might be saying: What is with this? Well, I know the Neurosurgeon who tended to to Mr. Wozniak. Plus, I've spent over 25 personal lunches with Mr. Wozniak when I was with Apple; so I personally know.

If you know of someone with TBI (who's had brain injury) or study up on what TBI is, you'd have a better understanding of what is truly in play in regards to the other comment posting on this article that note Mr. Wozniak is "out of touch with reality". There is a truth to that statement, though it is highly more related to his TBI than anything else.

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A guest said: (hide)

Thu Feb 23, 2006 11:01 pm

Wow... Woz co-founded Apple, helped give us something truly wonderful, and now look at all the punkass snarling dogs biting him on the ankles just because he doesn't agree with every decision the company makes and aint afraid to say so.

Pretty shameless, fellas.

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LaurieF said:

member since 15 Jun 2001 with 3545 posts, TMO Forum Mod, send him a message or view his profile

Thu Feb 23, 2006 11:20 pm

I've read through both versions of the interviews (in the NZ Herald and the Globe/Mail), and nowhere can I see anything that indicates that he is out of touch with reality.

Everyone's allowed to comment, critique and praise Apple. In the same way that everyone's allowed to do the same to Microsoft.

My impression is that he's an incredibly intelligent, slightly eccentric genius. We come to praise Wozniak, not bury him.

Weird...

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LaurieF said:

member since 15 Jun 2001 with 3545 posts, TMO Forum Mod, send him a message or view his profile

Thu Mar 02, 2006 9:14 pm

Another twist. Steve W objected to what Peter Nowak wrote and complained. Here's Nowak's response:

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=5&ObjectID=10370890

There's an MP3 (oddly it says: Requires Windows Media Player - that may be a "feature" of the NZ Herald, rather than Nowak's responsibility) of the interview.

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