Woz has been burning bridges and using up what good will he had in the Apple community.
What bridges, specifically?
Quote:
Originally Posted by walshbj
I'm not surprised. It's not like Ballmer is saying these things, it's a guy who helped start Apple. It hurts the Mac Faithful. They smell a traitor, because you only hear the bad things Woz says. And it seems more frequent of late...
quote from Dances with Wolves: But the soldiers hate me now, like they hate no other.
More frequent? The last AI story I found was a year ago.
Frankly, what I'm seeing here looks more like a buildup of venom and people trying to find excuses to pour it on someone. It's fine to disagree with him, I'm just not seeing where this kind of reaction is warranted. I think this thread is proving the religion point, anything that's considered the slightest bit heresy is given a good ol' tar and feathering.
And haven't you all just supported his religion analogy with your blanket dismissals and outraged indignity? Bear in mind that religions don't work on FORCING people to not challenge the status quo, but by bending them mentally so that they are predisposed not to. Seems pretty religious in here right now.
Now, Woz's claim that iPod is going the way of the dodo: There's some merit in that. The iPod as a music player only is almost dead. The shuffle is the only one that still just does music, and it's a niche item. The original iPod is, for all intents and purposes, already dead. It has evolved into a different device entirely, namely, the Multi Touch platform device. This is epitomized in the iPod Touch, and in the iPhone. These are not music players any more. They are what the PDA should have been all along. The other models, the nano, and classic, in particular, are definitely on the way out the door, and are around still only because large portions of the population either prefer a lower price point, larger storage, or smaller size, or just don't want to move over to one of them thar newfangled contraptions. Their market share will shrink though, as Apple continues to develop the MT models, and people get used to them. Walkman didn't die, it got replaced, slowly, by the cd player, which, in turn, was replaced by the MD player*, which was replaced by iPod.
Now on to stocks. Apple is way overpriced. In the beginning, stock value was originally based off of (in large part) the amount of dividend that a particular company paid to its shareholders. A stock, sans speculative buying, has no other value. Microshaft hit $400 (or whatever ungodly number it was) not because they were paying out large dividends that made it a reasonable investment, but because market-manglers, such as those who have brought on the current financial crisis, saw it was rising and bet that it would rise more. It's a completely false value that has been built up. Apple's shares, if we dispense with the absurd logic that does nothing for you will increase in value just because other people also want it to do nothing for them, are totally worthless right now. Apple hasn't paid a dividend in DECADES (correct me if I'm wrong). So Woz isn't too far off the mark to say that Apple is overpriced. Also, it is an observed phenomena that the markets BASH THE HELL out of Apple's stock over even the SLIGHTEST HINT that Steve J. is NOT inventing something insanely great this week. Apple is a volatile stock, so it isn't reasonable to assign it the same value as more stable ones, even accepting speculative buying. So stop with the paranoia and blind devotion to your portfolio, and give him some credit for having actually thought about this.
As to his programming skills: Are you all totally freaking retarded? Are you really trying to convince everyone that a guy who basically started the PC industry would not, over the course of 30 some odd years, EVER bother to learn C++? Are you stupid? The guy doesn't have a JOB. He has tons of time. Of COURSE he would. He is GEEK. Hear him code.
Now, as to why not do it on the desktop, the answer is that, duh, not everything is suited for desktop. Like live navigation, for example. Are you REALLY going to go geocaching with your Mac Pro strapped to your back? Live navigation just happens to be one of those things which is prohibited by Apple's iPhone SDK license agreement. Case closed.
Just to head off some of you chuckleheads at the pass, it is painfully apparent that a platform which is TOO open, such as Windows Mobile, is prone to being shredded by crap software which is both poorly designed, and poorly coded. Having a restricted platform is good, but having it excessively restricted is bad. I'm reading Woz as saying that Apple is leaning a bit far on the too-restricted side of things. I have no argument with him on that.
Maybe you're right. I listen to a lot of Leo Laporte and Woz seems to come up a lot. There was an embarrassing incident with Woz cutting in line at the 3G launch (or not cutting in line). Regardless of whether or not he did it he strikes me as a magnet for that kind of attention.
Venom? Maybe. You can't say Apple fans wouldn't react the same way to just about anyone who rained a little on Apple - and probably with MORE venom!
Like I said in my first post in this thread, I think Woz is just an awkward personality who invites this brand of headline.
So, it is without doubt that the iPod line will become obsolete - pretty soon actually, to be replaced by the iPhone and the Touch.
That's a funny statement to make considering the iPhone and touch ARE iPods.
Sure, the early generations of iPod are obsolete. But as long as the old iPods are replaced by newer iPods with more features, I don't see how iPod is going anywhere.
. The new iPods look like the old ones so why would most people buy a new one?
I don't think my iPod touch looks like any other of my previous iPods in any way whatsoever, but more importantly, it's a brilliant little hand-held computer/multia-media device.
I'm sixty years old and have owned many gadgets since the sixties, but the touch is far and away the most useful and the most fun. I love it.
I am quite convinced that the touch is going to be a huge success and eventually overtake the iPhone in sales numbers. The TCO of the touch is a fraction of that of the iPhone, and you can now make phone calls with the touch.
In the near future (perhaps between 2 and 5 years from now), wifi will be ubiquitous and the touch, with more powerful chipsets and much more memory, will evolve into THE hand-held computer/media/phone device.
Nope, just people pointing out that the guy is out of touch. Which he really seems to be. And I don't buy his attempt to head off criticism by insisting that people are zealots, reminds me of John McCain trying to brush off (valid) criticism by insisting that the media is biased and out to get him.
Like most of the above you may have missed that the 'iWatch' Woz meant was the verb not the noun. In other words a device to watch something with and not to tell the time.
You insulted my editor's credentials and suggested he made a poor interpretation of Woz's quotes, which "is why journalists go to school and bloggers are not journalists."
Here is a link to an article the Washington Post just syndicated:
Apple Co-Founder Steve Wozniak: iPod Is Dying And The iPhone Is Too Closed
I don't think anyone is inferring incorrectly. I responded because your comment opened the door for some clown to make a baseless post (since deleted) suggesting we completely fabricate news on a daily basis.
Best,
K
<SARCASM>
You're completely nuts, K, of COURSE you all fabricate the news. Hell, everyone knows Apple doesn't even really exist. It's just a lie the Democrats cooked up to distract everyone from the cake.
I don't think my iPod touch looks like any other of my previous iPods in any way whatsoever, but more importantly, it's a brilliant little hand-held computer/multia-media device.
I'm sixty years old and have owned many gadgets since the sixties, but the touch is far and away the most useful and the most fun. I love it.
I am quite convinced that the touch is going to be a huge success and eventually overtake the iPhone in sales numbers. The TCO of the touch is a fraction of that of the iPhone, and you can now make phone calls with the touch.
In the near future (perhaps between 2 and 5 years from now), wifi will be ubiquitous and the touch, with more powerful chipsets and much more memory, will evolve into THE hand-held computer/media/phone device.
First the iPods days are not numbered. One of the great things about the iPod is its name. The name is generic in way that allows it to keep reinventing itself. While the iPod was first an MP3 player, it has morphed into a more general purpose computing device. When does Woz perceive that we will stop using handheld computers? The answer is probably never. The iPod will continue to become 1-more powerful, 2-more affordable and 3-more ubiquitous.
Agreed, the iPod is a small hand-held computer.
As well, I disagree with Woz about the Walkman, it was never a fad, as one person stated, it started of as a Cassette player, then a CD player, and if Sony had had some vision, they could have had an iPod-like Walkman before Apple. Sony just wasn't on the ball.
Quote:
This is why Woz is Woz and Jobs is Jobs. Woz was a great inventor...Jobs is a great businessman. Woz doesn't understand business(
Exactly, Woz is an inventor or engineer, he likes to tinker. When he gets bored with something he likes to move on. Jobs is a businessman or designer with a long term vision, and a knack for simplifying designs.
One could certainly imply from his statements...He further says that the iPod has reached a sort of level of ubiquitousness, but doesn't comment on when or if the decline will take place. This is why journalists go to school and bloggers are not journalists.
I agree with the content of your post. But as a journalist who went to school i can't resist pointing out that it's infer, not "imply". Keep a dictionary handy (I do, and just as i was about to nail you for "ubiquitousness" i looked it up, and damned if i wouldn't have been wrong!)
Nope, just people pointing out that the guy is out of touch. Which he really seems to be. And I don't buy his attempt to head off criticism by insisting that people are zealots, reminds me of John McCain trying to brush off (valid) criticism by insisting that the media is biased and out to get him.
That is definitely an established BS technique, but just because you're paranoid, it doesn't mean they aren't really out to get you. The fact is that the world has justifiably established a stereotype for mac users as fanatics. Mac fanatics are real, and in the decades between 1984 and now, they made up the most visible, and certainly the noisiest, segment of the user base. That perception will only change as more average, boring people start using macs in average, boring ways. Only when it is observed that people who don't really care ALSO use macs, will the stereotype die. He may be wrong on some or all of the points he was quoted on, but he was definitely right that the vitriol would flow from the fanatics. We see proof in this thread that it has.
Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak this week likened the iPod to a fad whose days atop the consumer electronics market are numbered while lamenting the limitations of the iPhone 3G, for which he'd like to write certain applications but can't due to restrictions.
"The iPod has sort of lived a long life at number one," he told The Telegraph in an exclusive interview. "Things like that, if you look back to transistor radios and Walkmans, they kind of die out after a while."
Woz, who retired from the daily grind at Apple more than 20 years ago, says the media players are approaching a saturation point where "everyone has got one or two or three." It gets to the point, he adds, where they "get real cheap," become omnipresent, and don't sell as well as a result.
He also spoke out about the direction Apple has chose for the iPhone, specifically the limitations the company has imposed on developers, which, in his opinion, stifle innovation.
"Consumers aren't getting all they want when companies are very proprietary and lock their products down," he said, arguing in favor of Google's open approach to the Android platform that offers developers more freedom. "I would like to write some more powerful apps than what you're allowed."
Woz is also hesitant to embrace the cult following that Apple has managed to achieve. While it may provide some shelter during times of economic recession -- given that loyalists are likely to remain devoted in their purchase decisions -- it also stands in opposition to change.
"I would like to have the users influence the next generation," he said. "With a religion you're not allowed to challenge anything. I want our customers to challenge us."
Woz, who is consider naming his child Zowoz "because it's a palindrome," offhandedly remarked that Apple's next big thing could be an "iWatch," claiming that nobody, including chief executive Steve Jobs, really has the foresight into the next blockbuster gadget.
"I think he would be sitting there [unaware] right up until the day it is introduced," he said of Jobs.
In his interview with The Telegraph, Woz also sides with analysts who've recently downgraded Apple stock and predicts that Web 2.0 and social networking websites could be in a for a mini version of the dotcom crash that erased $5 trillion in market cap near the turn of the century.
While woz is a bit premature on the death of the iPod (unlike the walkman, nothing better has come out), he is right a lot of other things, especially the openness. If you're not open with developers, they're note as likely to develop. He's also complete right on the Apple can do no wrong quasi-religious angle and about us challenging Apple. Look, Apple may have produced the iPhone, but the community made it what it is today in lieu of Apples shortsightedness about the product. If we had challenged Apple, the platform might still be an expensive ipod with a phone and a lot of unrealized potential. Unfortunately, Apple doesn't always listen.
Palm *had* more than 70% of the market. Actually, once upon a time, there was no PDA but the Palm. This didn't prevent Palm from dying from lack of innovation and being stuck in its niche concept. I don't see how the iPod is any different in the long term?
Bad analogy.
Palm did have >70% market share but... they did it with inferior technology.
Palm was not the first or only PDA at the time.
Apple introduced the Newton in 1993!
Palm was founded by an ex-Apple employee in 1996.
Palm had +70% marketshare and patented technology that was years behind the competition.
Apple has +70% marketshare and patented technology that was years ahead of the competition.
In the same way that Apple is out-innovating Windows, Apple out-innovated Palm in the PDA space.
Microsoft and Palm pushed their inferior software on customers for years, but that formula won't work forever.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Lictor
As for car, that's also a bad example. There used to be a time when the automobile giants in the USA were really that, giants. Nowadays, they're just leftovers from the past century. And the car concept is dying slowly itself. As more and more people live in cities, where cars are just useless, and as they become more and more expansive to maintain and park, they will slowly fade into oblivion. Just as the horse-drawn carriage or the steam engine.
The car is a horse-drawn carriage with a different engine(both measured in horsepower).
carriage = calculator
car = computer
bus = mainframe
hybrid = laptop
mass transit = iphone
transportation is evolving and so is the computer.
A 4-function calculator and an iPhone are both computers.
The bullet train is an evolution of the horse-drawn carriage.
The iPod/iPhone will continue to evolve into whatever you need it to be.
The need for computers isn't going away.
The need for a handheld devices to interface with computers isn't going away any time soon.
Until we can just think to control computers accurately we will carry a device and the brand name will be "iPod".
Quote:
Originally Posted by Lictor
This is the very nature of technology to become obsolete. And it goes much farther than a concept merely evolving through the ages. For instance, even if we still call it "computer", there is so little in common between the ENIAC and a laptop that it isn't even the same concept. Same with the "phone" - nowadays, phones are barely used to phone other people.
If in 50 years we are still surfing the web, no matter on what "cool" device, if we are still listening to music on a zPod or whatever and if we're still talking about computers and mobile phone, no matter how evolved, it will be a sad day for humanity. Because it will mean we have gotten stuck into the tools and evolving them rather than coming up with new concepts.
So, it is without doubt that the iPod line will become obsolete - pretty soon actually, to be replaced by the iPhone and the Touch.
There is no Apple product called the Touch... it is an iPod Touch
This is my point exactly the iPod is not a MP3 player stuck in 2001.
It is a brand!
iPod Touch is an iPod.
In five years we may have large tablet iPods and desk sized iPods.
The point is they are iPods.
iPods will become whatever Apple wants it to become.
The brand is not going away anytime soon even though the form factor and the function will change.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Lictor
Because the concept of carrying music around on a limited capacity device is becoming obsolete. Why limit yourself to a tiny 120Gb when there is Tb of content to experiment?
But in the long run, even the iPhone will fade away, as a concept. Even if it manages to grab 100% market shares - it will only go faster then.
I don't get your point. What does it matter as long as Apple continues to innovate and stay years ahead of the competition. As long as people want them, they will still by iPods and iPhones
Comments
Regarding this whole thread, I don't remember seeing nearly so much hostility towards Wozniak, it's pretty surprising to me.
Woz has been burning bridges and using up what good will he had in the Apple community.
Woz has business dealings with former Apple bigwigs such as Ellen Hancock and Gil Amelio.
I can only imagine the sour grapes being served up at those meetings.
Yeah and that's what people once said of the slide rule and before that the abacus.
I have a slide rule AND an abacus. The abacus is on my iPod. What's your point?
Woz has been burning bridges and using up what good will he had in the Apple community.
What bridges, specifically?
I'm not surprised. It's not like Ballmer is saying these things, it's a guy who helped start Apple. It hurts the Mac Faithful. They smell a traitor, because you only hear the bad things Woz says. And it seems more frequent of late...
quote from Dances with Wolves: But the soldiers hate me now, like they hate no other.
More frequent? The last AI story I found was a year ago.
Frankly, what I'm seeing here looks more like a buildup of venom and people trying to find excuses to pour it on someone. It's fine to disagree with him, I'm just not seeing where this kind of reaction is warranted. I think this thread is proving the religion point, anything that's considered the slightest bit heresy is given a good ol' tar and feathering.
Yeah and that's what people once said of the slide rule and before that the abacus.
Both of which still exist and are still used.
ZOMG WOZ LAME!!
ZOMG WOZ ZUCKS!!
ZOMG WOZ CLULESS!!
ZOMG WOZ WOOOOOOZZZ!!!!!
WTF is this, the spanish inquisition?
And haven't you all just supported his religion analogy with your blanket dismissals and outraged indignity? Bear in mind that religions don't work on FORCING people to not challenge the status quo, but by bending them mentally so that they are predisposed not to. Seems pretty religious in here right now.
Now, Woz's claim that iPod is going the way of the dodo: There's some merit in that. The iPod as a music player only is almost dead. The shuffle is the only one that still just does music, and it's a niche item. The original iPod is, for all intents and purposes, already dead. It has evolved into a different device entirely, namely, the Multi Touch platform device. This is epitomized in the iPod Touch, and in the iPhone. These are not music players any more. They are what the PDA should have been all along. The other models, the nano, and classic, in particular, are definitely on the way out the door, and are around still only because large portions of the population either prefer a lower price point, larger storage, or smaller size, or just don't want to move over to one of them thar newfangled contraptions. Their market share will shrink though, as Apple continues to develop the MT models, and people get used to them. Walkman didn't die, it got replaced, slowly, by the cd player, which, in turn, was replaced by the MD player*, which was replaced by iPod.
Now on to stocks. Apple is way overpriced. In the beginning, stock value was originally based off of (in large part) the amount of dividend that a particular company paid to its shareholders. A stock, sans speculative buying, has no other value. Microshaft hit $400 (or whatever ungodly number it was) not because they were paying out large dividends that made it a reasonable investment, but because market-manglers, such as those who have brought on the current financial crisis, saw it was rising and bet that it would rise more. It's a completely false value that has been built up. Apple's shares, if we dispense with the absurd logic that does nothing for you will increase in value just because other people also want it to do nothing for them, are totally worthless right now. Apple hasn't paid a dividend in DECADES (correct me if I'm wrong). So Woz isn't too far off the mark to say that Apple is overpriced. Also, it is an observed phenomena that the markets BASH THE HELL out of Apple's stock over even the SLIGHTEST HINT that Steve J. is NOT inventing something insanely great this week. Apple is a volatile stock, so it isn't reasonable to assign it the same value as more stable ones, even accepting speculative buying. So stop with the paranoia and blind devotion to your portfolio, and give him some credit for having actually thought about this.
As to his programming skills: Are you all totally freaking retarded? Are you really trying to convince everyone that a guy who basically started the PC industry would not, over the course of 30 some odd years, EVER bother to learn C++? Are you stupid? The guy doesn't have a JOB. He has tons of time. Of COURSE he would. He is GEEK. Hear him code.
Now, as to why not do it on the desktop, the answer is that, duh, not everything is suited for desktop. Like live navigation, for example. Are you REALLY going to go geocaching with your Mac Pro strapped to your back? Live navigation just happens to be one of those things which is prohibited by Apple's iPhone SDK license agreement. Case closed.
Just to head off some of you chuckleheads at the pass, it is painfully apparent that a platform which is TOO open, such as Windows Mobile, is prone to being shredded by crap software which is both poorly designed, and poorly coded. Having a restricted platform is good, but having it excessively restricted is bad. I'm reading Woz as saying that Apple is leaning a bit far on the too-restricted side of things. I have no argument with him on that.
Bite me.
C
*J/K. Just making sure you're paying attention.
More frequent? The last AI story I found was a year ago.
The sun don't rise an' fall on AppleInsider JeffDM!
http://www.engadget.com/2008/06/13/v...iffins-iphone/
Maybe you're right. I listen to a lot of Leo Laporte and Woz seems to come up a lot. There was an embarrassing incident with Woz cutting in line at the 3G launch (or not cutting in line). Regardless of whether or not he did it he strikes me as a magnet for that kind of attention.
Venom? Maybe. You can't say Apple fans wouldn't react the same way to just about anyone who rained a little on Apple - and probably with MORE venom!
Like I said in my first post in this thread, I think Woz is just an awkward personality who invites this brand of headline.
So, it is without doubt that the iPod line will become obsolete - pretty soon actually, to be replaced by the iPhone and the Touch.
That's a funny statement to make considering the iPhone and touch ARE iPods.
Sure, the early generations of iPod are obsolete. But as long as the old iPods are replaced by newer iPods with more features, I don't see how iPod is going anywhere.
When did he say you would? He said that the iPods life has reached saturation, there are other digital music players around..
iPod is a Cadillac!
. The new iPods look like the old ones so why would most people buy a new one?
I don't think my iPod touch looks like any other of my previous iPods in any way whatsoever, but more importantly, it's a brilliant little hand-held computer/multia-media device.
I'm sixty years old and have owned many gadgets since the sixties, but the touch is far and away the most useful and the most fun. I love it.
I am quite convinced that the touch is going to be a huge success and eventually overtake the iPhone in sales numbers. The TCO of the touch is a fraction of that of the iPhone, and you can now make phone calls with the touch.
In the near future (perhaps between 2 and 5 years from now), wifi will be ubiquitous and the touch, with more powerful chipsets and much more memory, will evolve into THE hand-held computer/media/phone device.
WTF is this, the spanish inquisition?
Nope, just people pointing out that the guy is out of touch. Which he really seems to be. And I don't buy his attempt to head off criticism by insisting that people are zealots, reminds me of John McCain trying to brush off (valid) criticism by insisting that the media is biased and out to get him.
The title has always said "about run its course."
You insulted my editor's credentials and suggested he made a poor interpretation of Woz's quotes, which "is why journalists go to school and bloggers are not journalists."
Here is a link to an article the Washington Post just syndicated:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...100701734.html
Here is the title:
Apple Co-Founder Steve Wozniak: iPod Is Dying And The iPhone Is Too Closed
I don't think anyone is inferring incorrectly. I responded because your comment opened the door for some clown to make a baseless post (since deleted) suggesting we completely fabricate news on a daily basis.
Best,
K
<SARCASM>
You're completely nuts, K, of COURSE you all fabricate the news. Hell, everyone knows Apple doesn't even really exist. It's just a lie the Democrats cooked up to distract everyone from the cake.
</SARCASM>
C
I don't think my iPod touch looks like any other of my previous iPods in any way whatsoever, but more importantly, it's a brilliant little hand-held computer/multia-media device.
I'm sixty years old and have owned many gadgets since the sixties, but the touch is far and away the most useful and the most fun. I love it.
I am quite convinced that the touch is going to be a huge success and eventually overtake the iPhone in sales numbers. The TCO of the touch is a fraction of that of the iPhone, and you can now make phone calls with the touch.
In the near future (perhaps between 2 and 5 years from now), wifi will be ubiquitous and the touch, with more powerful chipsets and much more memory, will evolve into THE hand-held computer/media/phone device.
iPod Touch is a Rolls!
Woz is wrong on several points.
First the iPods days are not numbered. One of the great things about the iPod is its name. The name is generic in way that allows it to keep reinventing itself. While the iPod was first an MP3 player, it has morphed into a more general purpose computing device. When does Woz perceive that we will stop using handheld computers? The answer is probably never. The iPod will continue to become 1-more powerful, 2-more affordable and 3-more ubiquitous.
Agreed, the iPod is a small hand-held computer.
As well, I disagree with Woz about the Walkman, it was never a fad, as one person stated, it started of as a Cassette player, then a CD player, and if Sony had had some vision, they could have had an iPod-like Walkman before Apple. Sony just wasn't on the ball.
This is why Woz is Woz and Jobs is Jobs. Woz was a great inventor...Jobs is a great businessman. Woz doesn't understand business(
Exactly, Woz is an inventor or engineer, he likes to tinker. When he gets bored with something he likes to move on. Jobs is a businessman or designer with a long term vision, and a knack for simplifying designs.
One could certainly imply from his statements...He further says that the iPod has reached a sort of level of ubiquitousness, but doesn't comment on when or if the decline will take place. This is why journalists go to school and bloggers are not journalists.
I agree with the content of your post. But as a journalist who went to school
Nope, just people pointing out that the guy is out of touch. Which he really seems to be. And I don't buy his attempt to head off criticism by insisting that people are zealots, reminds me of John McCain trying to brush off (valid) criticism by insisting that the media is biased and out to get him.
That is definitely an established BS technique, but just because you're paranoid, it doesn't mean they aren't really out to get you. The fact is that the world has justifiably established a stereotype for mac users as fanatics. Mac fanatics are real, and in the decades between 1984 and now, they made up the most visible, and certainly the noisiest, segment of the user base. That perception will only change as more average, boring people start using macs in average, boring ways. Only when it is observed that people who don't really care ALSO use macs, will the stereotype die. He may be wrong on some or all of the points he was quoted on, but he was definitely right that the vitriol would flow from the fanatics. We see proof in this thread that it has.
C
iPod is a Cadillac!
oooo, now where did I put that welfare check?
C
Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak this week likened the iPod to a fad whose days atop the consumer electronics market are numbered while lamenting the limitations of the iPhone 3G, for which he'd like to write certain applications but can't due to restrictions.
"The iPod has sort of lived a long life at number one," he told The Telegraph in an exclusive interview. "Things like that, if you look back to transistor radios and Walkmans, they kind of die out after a while."
Woz, who retired from the daily grind at Apple more than 20 years ago, says the media players are approaching a saturation point where "everyone has got one or two or three." It gets to the point, he adds, where they "get real cheap," become omnipresent, and don't sell as well as a result.
He also spoke out about the direction Apple has chose for the iPhone, specifically the limitations the company has imposed on developers, which, in his opinion, stifle innovation.
"Consumers aren't getting all they want when companies are very proprietary and lock their products down," he said, arguing in favor of Google's open approach to the Android platform that offers developers more freedom. "I would like to write some more powerful apps than what you're allowed."
Woz is also hesitant to embrace the cult following that Apple has managed to achieve. While it may provide some shelter during times of economic recession -- given that loyalists are likely to remain devoted in their purchase decisions -- it also stands in opposition to change.
"I would like to have the users influence the next generation," he said. "With a religion you're not allowed to challenge anything. I want our customers to challenge us."
Woz, who is consider naming his child Zowoz "because it's a palindrome," offhandedly remarked that Apple's next big thing could be an "iWatch," claiming that nobody, including chief executive Steve Jobs, really has the foresight into the next blockbuster gadget.
"I think he would be sitting there [unaware] right up until the day it is introduced," he said of Jobs.
In his interview with The Telegraph, Woz also sides with analysts who've recently downgraded Apple stock and predicts that Web 2.0 and social networking websites could be in a for a mini version of the dotcom crash that erased $5 trillion in market cap near the turn of the century.
[ View this article at AppleInsider.com ]
While woz is a bit premature on the death of the iPod (unlike the walkman, nothing better has come out), he is right a lot of other things, especially the openness. If you're not open with developers, they're note as likely to develop. He's also complete right on the Apple can do no wrong quasi-religious angle and about us challenging Apple. Look, Apple may have produced the iPhone, but the community made it what it is today in lieu of Apples shortsightedness about the product. If we had challenged Apple, the platform might still be an expensive ipod with a phone and a lot of unrealized potential. Unfortunately, Apple doesn't always listen.
And so, what's your point?
Palm *had* more than 70% of the market. Actually, once upon a time, there was no PDA but the Palm. This didn't prevent Palm from dying from lack of innovation and being stuck in its niche concept. I don't see how the iPod is any different in the long term?
Bad analogy.
Palm did have >70% market share but... they did it with inferior technology.
Palm was not the first or only PDA at the time.
Apple introduced the Newton in 1993!
Palm was founded by an ex-Apple employee in 1996.
Palm had +70% marketshare and patented technology that was years behind the competition.
Apple has +70% marketshare and patented technology that was years ahead of the competition.
In the same way that Apple is out-innovating Windows, Apple out-innovated Palm in the PDA space.
Microsoft and Palm pushed their inferior software on customers for years, but that formula won't work forever.
As for car, that's also a bad example. There used to be a time when the automobile giants in the USA were really that, giants. Nowadays, they're just leftovers from the past century. And the car concept is dying slowly itself. As more and more people live in cities, where cars are just useless, and as they become more and more expansive to maintain and park, they will slowly fade into oblivion. Just as the horse-drawn carriage or the steam engine.
The car is a horse-drawn carriage with a different engine(both measured in horsepower).
carriage = calculator
car = computer
bus = mainframe
hybrid = laptop
mass transit = iphone
transportation is evolving and so is the computer.
A 4-function calculator and an iPhone are both computers.
The bullet train is an evolution of the horse-drawn carriage.
The iPod/iPhone will continue to evolve into whatever you need it to be.
The need for computers isn't going away.
The need for a handheld devices to interface with computers isn't going away any time soon.
Until we can just think to control computers accurately we will carry a device and the brand name will be "iPod".
This is the very nature of technology to become obsolete. And it goes much farther than a concept merely evolving through the ages. For instance, even if we still call it "computer", there is so little in common between the ENIAC and a laptop that it isn't even the same concept. Same with the "phone" - nowadays, phones are barely used to phone other people.
If in 50 years we are still surfing the web, no matter on what "cool" device, if we are still listening to music on a zPod or whatever and if we're still talking about computers and mobile phone, no matter how evolved, it will be a sad day for humanity. Because it will mean we have gotten stuck into the tools and evolving them rather than coming up with new concepts.
So, it is without doubt that the iPod line will become obsolete - pretty soon actually, to be replaced by the iPhone and the Touch.
There is no Apple product called the Touch... it is an iPod Touch
This is my point exactly the iPod is not a MP3 player stuck in 2001.
It is a brand!
iPod Touch is an iPod.
In five years we may have large tablet iPods and desk sized iPods.
The point is they are iPods.
iPods will become whatever Apple wants it to become.
The brand is not going away anytime soon even though the form factor and the function will change.
Because the concept of carrying music around on a limited capacity device is becoming obsolete. Why limit yourself to a tiny 120Gb when there is Tb of content to experiment?
But in the long run, even the iPhone will fade away, as a concept. Even if it manages to grab 100% market shares - it will only go faster then.
I don't get your point. What does it matter as long as Apple continues to innovate and stay years ahead of the competition. As long as people want them, they will still by iPods and iPhones