Woz finds flaws in Apple's latest offerings
Steve Wozniak, the co-founder of Apple, in Sydney today. — Asher Moses — Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak heaped less than lavish praise on the company's iPhone, MacBook Air and Apple TV products when visiting Sydney this morning.
Context & Ripple Effects
Steve Wozniak's Sydney remarks land just over a week after his extended Wharton interview on Apple, Steve Jobs and prankster culture (February 2008), making this a second high-profile turn in the co-founder's public commentary within two weeks — a pattern that began with his 2007 reflections on the Apple II and DIY computing.
The critique arrives against concrete product stumbles: Apple fell well short of its promised 1,000 iTunes movie rentals by end of February, with only 351 titles available through Apple TV, while invitations have gone out for a March 6 iPhone software road map event where an SDK plan is rumored but unconfirmed. Pickup by APC alongside the Sydney Morning Herald shows the comments travelled beyond one outlet.
First-order effects
- Wozniak's public dissatisfaction with the iPhone, MacBook Air and Apple TV hands critics ready-made ammunition in the same news cycle as the Apple TV rental-catalog shortfall, complicating Apple's messaging days before its March 6 iPhone road map event.
Second-order effects
- The remarks sharpen scrutiny already building around Apple's exclusive-carrier iPhone arrangement, where a new draft wireless bill threatens to disrupt the carrier bond even as Tim Cook told the Goldman Sachs symposium the iPhone is not inherently tied to a single-carrier model.
Third-order effects
- A co-founder routinely commenting outside Apple's official channels sets up a recurring tension between founder voice and corporate message discipline — one that gains force if the rumored SDK opens the platform and shifts what 'flaws' mean for third-party developers.
The trend: Apple's founding narrative is becoming a double-edged asset, with Steve Wozniak emerging as an independent commentator whose product critiques Apple cannot fully control.