Last week, we reported that cutesy-wutesy-fuzzy-wuzzy-wumpus-bear (and Apple co-founder) Steve Wozniak was unimpressed with the new iPad Air and iPad mini with Retina Display. His supposed complaint? 128GB just wasn’t enough for a man with a huge media collection like him!
It seemed uncharacteristic for Woz to publicly bash the company he helped create. Woz is an innocent, and usually reacts to every new Apple product with wide-eyed glee, so his complaints seemed strange. For good reason, too, because Woz says he was misquoted, and actually likes the new iPads just fine.
Explaining the problem to A New Domain, Woz says:
I never criticized the new iPads. I think they are fine. I don’t think you have a choice between iPad models so that’s just saying that the iPad is good … that’s a very different statement (and contrary to the implication) that, if I chose not to upgrade now, less than a year after my last upgrade, then I, Woz, am saying that the new Apple iPad is bad.
According to Wozniak, the issue is that the British press habitually mischaracterizes his comments:
I’m sure I even started this interview, before a single question, (by) telling them that this was my feeling and experience with (UK) press but … I’d answer questions and be honest (in the interview) anyway. Some of the headlines (I saw as a result of that first interview) were very wrong — saying that I did not like the new iPad or (that I) didn’t think highly of it … though the headlines on the (UK and other) articles … make such a determination sound correct at first glance.
So what did Wozniak actually say?
I don’t buy every Apple upgrade. I love my iPad and I use it a lot … but the new one wasn’t enough of a critical change to get my money. I did not upgrade to the retina iPad back when.But when the retina iPad went to 128 GB of SSD, I did upgrade … because that helped me. By the way, I did upgrade to the new MacBook Pro. I ordered mine online. It’s a tiny thing but the upgrade from three quarters of a TB to 1TB of SSD made the difference for me. Once, I had a MacBook Pro with many tens of gigabytes available get bricked by some upgrade … (all) because it didn’t have enough spare storage room. So I don’t want to be close to full on (storage, ever).
In other words, to Woz, not every iPad is a critical update, and he cares about space more than Retina or new form factors. Makes sense, and he’s not alone. The iPad 2 still accounts for 22% of all iPad sales. It turns out that people don’t feel they need a yearly or even bi-annual upgrade to the iPad the way they do an iPhone.
What’s more important to you in a new iPad upgrade? Let us know in the comments.
