Samsung has the understanding to make good products: Apple Co-Founder, Woz

Stephen Gary “Steve” Wozniak, known as “Woz” is an American inventor, computer engineer and programmer who co-founded Apple Computer. He is credited to have single-handedly invented both the Apple I and Apple II computers in the 1970s which significantly contributed to the microcomputer revolution. In an exclusive chat with Sonali Krishna, Brand Equity, ET NOW recently, Stephen Gary expressed his views on many topics ranging from the movie “Jobs” to the rival Samsung’s product, the new leader at Apple Inc, Tim Cook and the changing dynamics of the handset market.

On a query as to how he found the new movie “Jobs”  Woz said the movie fails to bring out the real Jobs, what is inside him, the personality that he was, the kind of discussions he had with people and his decisions on the same. He felt the movie was too weak on bringing out things you love and hate about Steve Jobs. It failed in really pinpointing on what to thank Jobs for the wonderful things he brought forth that changed our lives. Every single scene that showed him dealing with people, mentors and business were opposite of what he was in real life.

When asked about the Samsung products and if their success  meant that the Apple era was coming to an end, Gary said that Samsung Galaxy and Galaxy Note were really good products because he can do a lot of things that he can 

Gary further said that Samsung has lot of products and understanding of what it takes to make a good product. Though Apple led the way, Samsung followed in its footsteps, even copied some of Apple’s features and succeeded. One company cannot be everything in a product. One does not hear about great new advances from Apple, it is just little improvement in products here and there. This is because people working in that product category could predict little improvement over what was there before and certainly not a huge change in direction. Gary further added that it is in Apple’s culture to put out lousy products and then say we have got something new.

On his views on the current Apple CEO, Tim Cook, Gary replied that after Steve Jobs we had enough time to test him on his visionary and management ability. He said he was happy with Tim Cook who may be the person to take the company forward. He has made the company a little more driven, likeable and acceptable to the vendors.

On the tip he would give Apple, Gary said they should be little more open. They have got big businesses in iTunes and the world’s biggest online music store. They should capitalise on this and let the entire world buy music on any phone, open it for Android and other platforms.

Lastly on the changing market dynamics of  the handsets market, he was of the view that nowadays all smartphones are so good, have speed and do everything quickly. The samartphones of the world are amazing and comparable to any computer on a smaller scale. He said transition to  variable technology is the next big thing and breakthrough in computers. Variable technology  is one of the five major changes predicted and more people will use it in future.

Tune in to Brand Equity with Sonali Krishna, On ET NOW on Saturday 2:30 pm, Repeats on Sunday 11:00 am