Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak has long been an unabashed believer that Cupertino should release a bigger iPhone. Around the time of the iPhone 5, he said Apple should have released two different models, one “regular” and one jumbo-size, to better compete with Android superphones
Now that the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus are here, Woz is glad. But he’s still being hard on Apple, saying they’re three years too late with the big phones. And he’s not too crazy about the Apple Watch either.
“Apple could have had a much bigger share of the smartphone market if it had a larger-screen iPhone for the past three years,” Wozniak told CNNMoney. “It could have competed better with Samsung.”
As for the Apple Watch, it sounds like Woz just isn’t a big fan, describing it as a “luxury fitness band” instead of a must-have product:
Wozniak said he was an early smartwatch adopter, strapping his iPod nano to his wrist. He grew excited about the possibility of shrinking a smartphone down into a wristwatch.
“I kept saying that I’d like to have a smartphone on my wrist, so I bought a few smartwatches when they first came out.” Wozniak said. “I got rid of them so quick. I got real negative on smartwatches.”
He said he kept going back to his phone, because he needed the larger display.
Always outspoken, affable and kind, we love Woz to death, but we think he’s wrong about the Apple Watch. What about you?
Source: CNN
John Brownlee is a writer for Fast Company, and a contributing writer here at CoM. He has also written for Wired, Playboy, Boing Boing, Popular Mechanics, VentureBeat, and Gizmodo. He lives in Boston with his wife and two parakeets. You can follow him here on Twitter.
60 responses to “Steve Wozniak calls Apple Watch a ‘luxury fitness band,’ says bigger iPhones are 3 years late”
I like WOZ but there is a reason he was not the business side of Apple.
That’s fantastic, intelligible English you just formulated there, well done.
I like James Alexander but there is a reason he is not the typing side of English.
Thanks for liking me HEHEH not sure what is wrong with my English.
You need to include a comma after “WOZ”, the word “why” after the word “reason”, and perhaps the word “on” after the word “not”. Also, typing Woz in all caps may not be the best unless you are shouting his name. I wouldn’t get too worried about it though. It’s not like you’re writing up a formal document or anything. It’s just a comment section for an online article after all. There’s much worse out there in the world. LOL :)
Exactly. HEHEHE
exactly!
And looking at the size of Woz, he knows a fitness band when he sees one.
He likes to eat, and wouldn’t you if you had Erectile Dysfunction?
I know Woz is a legacy and all, but he retired from the industry thirty years ago. Can we stop pretending he’s relevant now?
Agreed. I just cringe each time a journalist hack goes to Woz for industry analysis. We all like Woz and acknowledge that he was a brilliant engineer 35 to 40 years ago. However, he’s never demonstrated any sort of business acumen or understanding what customers want.
Well maybe if we all stopped commenting instead of taking our valuable time to call him out as a moron… But we click and click and type and we give them a reason to give us 1,000 more Woz stories. Seriously… We should all send Woz as many Sizzler gift certificates as possible to keep him away from all other human contact.
Woz is a great individual, but he’s so far removed from modern day hardware design, marketing, etc., it’s almost sad when he speaks on these subjects. His opinion is exactly as valid as any other consumers. Next time, Cult of Mac should just give me a call and hear what I think…
It’s great to look in the rearview mirror from the sidelines and tell people what they should have done.
Not relevant, as he is commenting on the Apple Watch, which is not even available yet.
Actually he was opining about the phone as well, and this is not the first time he has spoken up. Sorry to disagree.
What I find astonishing about the Woz Watch is that no one, *no one* gives a crap what Lee Iacocca has to say about the state of the American car industry, or what Ford or Chrysler should be doing next, or, well, just about anything.
And Iacocca retired a decade after Woz left Apple, and was orders of magnitude more important.
Woz needs to just close his mouth and give up these feeble attempts to be cool.
It seems Steve Wozniak was right about big screen phones and Steve Jobs was wrong .
Iphone 6 is Apples best selling phone,
In a 2010 news conference. Jobs was asked, why not just make the
phone bigger, so that the antenna might have more space within the
device and thus get better reception?
He replied that he disliked the new crop of bigger phones from Samsung et al. “You can’t get your hand around it,” he said, “no one’s going to buy that.” He also derided big phones as “Hummers.”
Woz has hit the nail on the head here. Hard luck, Apple, bad press. But remember where you heard it first…
Love the people who easily pass some stupid comment without an iota of contribution to anything. Love the people who print their words even more :) :)
Woz is failing to imagine what developers will do with the Apple Watch. He could use a fitness band if you ask me.
I think he is correct on both accounts. If Apple had released a bigger iPhone 3 years ago I’m sure they could have crushed Samsung. Also I think that the watch just might be apples biggest fiasco to date. We will have to see. But I just don’t think people want a watch anymore. Fitness band yes. Watch no.
Market study to support this?
How would I have a market study on something that hasn’t happened :-)
Apple is crushing Samsung once again now so now or then does not matter. I think the Apple watch will be a huge hit since people are not putting their phones in pockets as much anymore. I know I am getting one and will use it in many ways.
HomeKit is made for the Apple Watch: at home, you usually don’t have your iPhone with you, but your watch is always on your wrist. HealthKit and Apple Pay are also reasons to buy an Apple Watch.
The key advantage of a smartwatch over a smartphone is that you can easily ALWAYS wears it and it is in direct contact of your body (HealthKit).
The lack of vision of some people is amazing, Woz being the first apparently: he is so old school.
Let´s hope they get the health app working by the time the Watch somes out because the version we have now sucks big time.
Judging the future of a new technology by the (supposed) bugs in its first release is a perfect way to demonstrate your lack of vision.
“Fitness bands yes. Watch no.”
What defines a “watch” anyway? Wristwatches fell out of use because there’s a dozen other ways to get the time. But the wrist is a great omnipresent place to send and receive information. The Apple Watch is just a wristwatch like the iPhone is just a telephone.
I’m looking forward to quickly getting notifications, silent alarms, getting glanceable directions, controlling iTunes/Apple TV, and paying for stuff without having to fuss with the wallet. The future of HomeKit also presents exciting possibilities.
Big deal – Apple is doing great and Samsung is still getting crushed between two big rocks – Apple and Xiaomi
Hey Steve….
I have some Nilla Wafers…. MMMMMMM
GO AWAY!!!
Apple has found great success leveraging brand loyalty and planned obsolescence, yet there are people who disagree with Woz’s message so they call him fat and irrelevant.
Planned obsolescence? Welcome to the world of technology where everyone uses a 3 year old android phone and 4 year old windows computer.
Actually, Apple products age better than their competitors, but keep repeating your talking points.
Yes, planned obsolescence.
Like Apple using non removable batteries or the lack of ability to add memory with an SD card, both of which extend the useful life of a device.
You could even argue the use of glass all around makes the iPhones easily damaged requiring more frequent repairs or replacements.
You do realize that the average iphone is used for far more years than the average android phone, right? A lot of android phones go straight to a landfill brand new such as the Amazon Fire phone and the facebook phone
And by glass all around you mean the iphone 4/4S and not the iphone 1, 3G, 3GS, 5, 5C, 5S, 6 and 6+, right? Weak point.
The Nexus 4 has a glass back, and like all the other Nexus devices, don’t have SD card support or removable batteries.
But Google isn’t the evil Apple, so they get a free pass from hypocrites.
Hypocrite? I don’t think that word means what you think it means.
My original statement stands true regardless of your capacity to understand it or take it at face value.
It would help your reading comprehension if you didn’t try to read between the lines and fill them with your own biases.
How do you know I don’t side with Microsoft and think both Apple and Google are evil? (btw I’m platform agnostic)
For your information, it is possible to be critical of something and still be in support of it, Woz is the perfect example of that. He doesn’t deserve to be demeaned or his opinion invalidated because he disagrees with your bias.
Woz is the perfect example that it is easy to be a backseat driver, but it’s amazing that he can be a backseat driver AND be wrong by claims that “bigger iPhones are three years too late”
Too late for what? Too late to be selling out like crazy? Apparently not…
That right there is an example of your biased and broken logic.
The phones are selling out like crazy, why? because they are bigger.
So Woz was right, most people desired larger screened phones.
I was also right in my original statement, by holding out building larger screen phones (planned obsolescence) Apple was able to leverage their “brand loyalty” to build up anticipation and drive demand which makes this the most successful phone they or anyone else has ever released.
If you would have taken the time to read the source article you would see that Woz himself admits to not being sure if he has a place in today’s tech world.
You might also understand more about where he is coming from as a gadget guy and some of the other things he got right, namely Siri.
Woz claimed that Apple was “too late”. Late – perhaps (or maybe at just the right time). Too late – I don’t think so.
By your logic, now that Apple has large screen phones they wouldn’t go obsolete anymore and customers will stop buying new iphones every 2 years, right? I think not.
If you use a smartphone older than 2 years, knowing that it only costs a dollar a day to get a new smartphone every two years, then more power to you.
This planned obsolescence isn’t some giant Apple conspiracy theory. You can blame it on Moore’s law rather than Apple for computers (including smartphones) going obsolete quickly compared to, say, a microwave, a washing machine or a car.
Woz never said they were “too late”, what you seem to believe is not even close to the meaning of his actual words.
Your an interesting case for sure, I knew you were special from the start I was just wondering how deep your psychosis went.
Finally someone else that isn’t in love with the Apple Watch.
Woz is right, on all fronts. Apple delayed going to bigger displays ridiculously, and they had to drop to a market place share of almost 10% before they were actually forced to do that.They were made into following the trend. As for the smart watches, and Apple Watch namely, they rushed a product in a presentation, clearly not ready that they keep delaying taking to production.
Exactly how large a market share must a company have to be considered successful? Is it really necessary for Apple to completely dominate the mobile industry by way of market share numbers? Apple is building iPhones that consumers like to use and they’re not going to reach everyone because they cost more than most Android smartphones. Woz saying Apple is three years too late is ridiculous. Apple is still one of the most wealthiest companies on the planet and it doesn’t seem in any immediate danger of losing that position.
It sure is easy to sit back and be an armchair CEO and looking at things in hindsight. Woz was never the businessman type. He was more interested in building things and that’s what he should stick with. If it were left to Woz, Apple Computer would never have been in existence. He’s entitled to an opinion but even if Apple made a mistake by not having large display iPhones a few years ago, the mistake has likely been corrected and then some.
There’s no way Apple can compete with Android in pure sales numbers, so why even bother trying to make up scenarios where it might happen. The Android platform is a fragmented mess from so many brands, models and carriers where most of the devices can’t even be updated in a timely fashion. Far too many devices on the Android platform to be handled properly. Android has gotten too large to control by Google with everyone wanting to do their own thing.
It doesn’t seem as though Woz is going to be much interested in a fitness band, anyway.
You’re right, and being the biggest wealthiest company with loyal customers has made Apple lazy. Without the drive to beat anyone else they are no longer innovative and cutting edge. And why would they be, millions of people will buy the next iphone whether it actually has any upgrades or not.
Apple cannot afford to get lazy because there’s literally dozens of competitors nipping at its heels and trying to steal its lunch.
Also, Apple has relatively few product lines (for a company of its market cap) so each product needs its 110%
Everyone’s slagging him off, but I defy anyone to explain how he is in any way wrong in what he is saying…
1) Current/past smart watches are pretty much the Sidekicks and Blackberries of 2014. I don’t think it’s really logical to write off the Apple Watch because of past products. 2) Going back the phone because you need a bigger screen is sort of missing the point – like saying smartphones aren’t useful because a computer’s keyboard is much better. A good wearable takes advantage of its constant place on the body, and I think Apple Watch fits the bill.
And then he walked his dog, ate at Longhorn Steaks, and got an expensive hotel room comped to him in a large Asian city.
I followed Woz for a few months on Twitter and the above sentence represents about 85% of his tweets.
Unfollow.
Unfollowed.***
I agree with most of the comments here: Woz is definitely a living relic of the industry, and he is a very likeable character; however, he has been disconnected from the creative and marketing processes of the industry for many many years. The man is entitled to his opinion, of course, but from many comments he has done in the past we know that his necessities as user are very specific and too different from the rest of the users. The problem is that too many people regard him as some kind of guru and he gets too much press and, after all, he still gets earnings as an Apple shareholder.
To the Woz bashers: If Woz is such a has-been and so irrelevant, then why are you reading this article and commenting on it? I’ll tell you: Because you were interested in knowing what he has to say.
Also, you say he has no marketing savvy, and yet Jobs was very wrong that the big-screen smartphones would not sell, and Woz was right on …. three years ago.
Articles with “Apple” in the title get a lot of readers.
When you get old you need plus1’s to read anything smallish.
Also – lose some weight Woz. You’ll get sick if you continue to expand.
I tend to tune out techie neck beard types!
I think the Woz is right. Jobs would have demanded something special, something more from a watch. And, of course, he would have made it seem like the best thing since the discovery of fire. For example, one thing many folk were expecting/hoping it would do was to monitor glucose levels. There’s even some evidence that Apple put some research and development into that. Apparently, it just wasn’t ready for prime time. Just imagine if they could have figured that out… it would truly change the world of health, not just for diabetics, but for virtually anyone that understands the affects blood sugar has on health. It just feels like those days of real magic at Apple are gone. Now, they seem to be very complacent in making things bigger, thinner and in gold tone.
He is wrong. At a glance notifications that will integrate better than android could ever possibly do due to their current mishmash of fragmentation will be useful.
We need an Onion headline. “Woz discusses whether Apple should release a fax machine”
Those of that think the Apple Watch is a good idea… you may be right, but you’re missing the point. Apple is about innovation. Making a watch out of a phone is not innovative. It’s not “thinking different”. The same can be said for making a bigger phone. If we’re only concerned about the size or placement of our technology we’re not developing new technology.
Bigger phones, watches, google glass… these are not the future, they’re just crap in-between the iPhone and the next revolutionary technology.