Wozniak: I don’t like being trapped in Apple’s ecosystem

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The Woz tells it like it is.
Woz remains as independent as ever.
Photo: Universal Pictures

Despite still technically being an Apple employee, Steve Wozniak isn’t known for voicing the Cupertino official line when asked about recent iDevelopments.

Speaking at a recent conference, hosted by enterprise software firm New Relic, Woz chimed in about his thoughts on the Apple ecosystem, Tim Cook’s belief that the iPad Pro could replace your need for a MacBook, and the Apple Watch — which he’s previously expressed his skepticism of.

Woz notes that he prefers the larger form factor of the iPad Pro to the smaller iPad mini (and, presumably, the iPad Air), but says he remains, “more of a laptop-based guy” and that the, “tablet has been limited for me” in terms of taking over productivity tasks. (Something which was echoed by many early iPad Pro reviewers, and is currently being tested out by our Glorious Leader and Editor-in-Chief Leander Kahney.)

Woz also says that the Apple Watch is slowly-but-surely improving, although it’s still got a long way to go. “Now it’s coming back to ‘better than break even,’” he noted, referring to the value versus price debate.

Finally, Wozniak said that he likes to keep his options open when it comes to his tech devices, by using a wide range of products — despite the fact that this means it’s a bit harder to integrate devices. “I don’t like being in the Apple ecosystem,” he said. “I don’t like being trapped. I like being independent.”

Which explains as well as anything why Woz has been off doing his own thing for the past few decades, despite Steve Jobs apparently offering him a job with Apple as recently as 2011.

Source: Fortune

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