Steve Wozniak wishes Apple was split up into autonomous divisions

By

Woz
Woz thinks Apple should have done this years ago.
Photo: Bloomberg

Politicians like Elizabeth Warren want Apple broken up into pieces — and company co-founder Steve Wozniak agrees. Well, sort of.

In an interview with Bloomberg Technology, Woz said that he wishes Apple had elected to break up its core business years ago. For the good of everyone.

“I wish Apple, on its own, had split up a long time ago and split off independent divisions to far away places and let them think independently the way Hewlett-Packard did when I worked there,” Wozniak said. “But that’s my opinion. It’s not like there’s not one set of facts that makes it right. Other people can come to other conclusions. I think big tech has gotten too big; it’s too powerful a force in our life, and it’s taken our choices away.”

During the 1990s, the last time Woz worked at Apple, the company did begin to split up into various spin-outs. The Newton division, for instance, was rolled out as its own company. However, when Steve Jobs returned, the Newton project was cancelled, alongside many other Apple projects.

Splitting up Apple?

From Woz’s comments, it’s not totally clear whether he’s talking about splitting up Apple being for the betterment of the company or to fight the dominance of tech giants. However, it seems likely he’s referring to the former. “I think Apple’s the best of the companies for a lot of different reasons,” he said. “[They care] about the customers and just making money off of good products, not from tracking you, following you.”

Woz also addressed Apple’s push into Services. He noted that, “I’m actually very proud of Apple as a company because of the fact that we have been able to transition.” Woz says that Apple successfully shifted from being a computer company to one that made mobile devices. Now it’s heading into the next phase of its life. “Bing flexible, being able to shift with the demands of the market is very important for a modern ongoing company that’s really going to make it,” he said.

In addition, Woz praised the Apple Card as “beautiful,” and described the Apple Watch as “probably about my favorite piece of technology in the world right now.”

Source: Bloomberg

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