A Word From The Woz about Android

Android will have double Apple’s share of a trillion-dollar industry by 2014.  Over 208 million tablets will be sold by then, and social networking will replace email as our choice method of saying hi to Mom online. These are the predictions of The Gartner Group.[1] They have been providing technology related market insight since the beginning of the PC revolution. These are serious figures, over which serious men in serious suits salivate. 

Wandering into this debate is big cuddly Woz, Apple employee #1. Every young engineer looks up to Woz as the uber-geek who invented the PC. Steve fired an over-zealous Apple test engineer for showing Woz an iPad prototype for only a few minutes.[2] He has always played good cop to Steve’s bad cop. Woz is a nice guy, and he doesn’t mind telling you that ad nausem. One of most beautiful stories from the early days occurred when Woz shared his Apple stock among the employees who were neglected by Steve. In the Silicon Valley culture of mercenary ambitions, Woz has been called “uniquely un-driven” by veteran columnist and political analyst, Stewart Alsop.[3] Dan Lyons (AKA Fake Steve Jobs) described Woz as “the nicest, coolest guy you could ever meet”.[4] 

Woz is one of Steve’s many PR nightmares. He just makes Steve look downright bad. Even his stainless steel business card is more famous and way cooler (!) than Steve’s card. Steve can’t control what Woz says to his legion of acolytes. If he ever did try to put a muzzle on Woz, it would only make Steve look worse. The tech press awaits with bated breath for any word from the Woz that he has doubts about an Apple product. Woz set off a storm of gossip after stating in an interview with Dutch paper De Telegraaf (translated by Google, mmm) that Android will beat Apple just like Windows beat the Mac. Woz said the key in both battles is open versus closed.[5]

---

[1] Gartner (2010) 2010 Press Releases. Retrieved from http://www.gartner.com/it/section.jsp?type=press_releases&format=xhtml&year=2010&show_archived=true

[2] Wozniak, S. (2010, April 24) Steve Wozniak On Apple Security, Employee Termination, and Gray Powell. Gizmodo.com  Retrieved from http://gizmodo.com/5523673/steve-wozniak-on-apple-security-employee-termination-and-gray-powell?skyline=true&s=i

[3] Wolf, G. (1998, September) The World According to Woz: Start up. Drop out. Have fun. Pass it on. Wired Magazine.

[4] Lyons, D. (2009, March 7) Dancing With the Woz. Newsweek. 

[5] Monterie, A. (2010, November, 18) ‘Apple maakte al eerder een smartphone’. De Telegraaf. Retrieved from http://www.telegraaf.nl/digitaal/8250271/__Besturingssysteem_Google_wint_race_om_smartphones__.html?p=3,2