Exclusive: Woz misquoted! ‘Almost every app that I have is better on the iPhone’
Some comments attributed to Steve Wozniak caused quite a kerfuffle this morning — according to Dutch paper De Telegraaf, Woz said that “Android phones have more features,” which would help Google's OS become the dominant smartphone platform.
Context & Ripple Effects
Steve Wozniak has been generating unscripted headlines for Apple for years — back in March 2008 he publicly picked apart Apple's latest offerings, and in January 2010 he confessed his affection for the "Google Phone" to NBC Bay Area. So when Dutch paper De Telegraaf reported this morning that Woz said "Android phones have more features" en route to predicting Google's OS would dominate smartphones, the quote spread fast precisely because it sounded like him.
Today's Engadget exclusive walks that report back: Woz was misquoted, and his actual position — "almost every app that I have is better on the iPhone" — is far friendlier to Apple. The episode says less about Woz's device preferences than about how eagerly the Android-vs-iPhone narrative consumes anything a recognizable Apple founder says.
First-order effects
- The same-day correction defuses what had become an instant talking point for Android advocates, replacing "Android phones have more features" with a claim that Apple's App Store lead shows up in Woz's own pocket.
Second-order effects
- Every future Woz remark on mobile platforms will now pass through a translate-then-amplify pipeline — foreign-language interviews from a famously candid founder carry proven headline value, and verification lags virality.
Third-order effects
- In a market consolidating around two platforms, stray founder commentary functions as competitive signal whether or not it is accurate — Apple and Google alike now have an incentive to treat a co-founder's offhand quotes as part of the platform war, not personal opinion.
The trend: As the smartphone race narrows to Android versus iPhone, every offhand remark from a recognizable founder gets mined for platform-war meaning, and misquotes reliably outrun their corrections.