Apple co-founder, and budding video game action star Steve Wozniak is known for speaking his mind about the company he and Steve Jobs co-founded oh, so many years ago. Now the technology icon tells TechCrunch that he’s worried that Microsoft has surpassed his offspring in the ability to innovate.
During the interview, TechCrunch’s Andrew Keen asked Woz if he felt that Microsoft was now more innovative than Apple. Here’s his response: “I fear that Microsoft might have been sitting in their labs, trying to innovate, with a formula. “How do we come up with new ideas? Let’s not keep doing the same things as before, just the newer versions of them.” They might have been doing that for three years, while Apple was just used to cranking out the newest iPhone and falling a little behind. And that worries me greatly.”
Critics have often said Apple was standing pat over the last few years, accusing them of playing it safe by releasing handsets and tablets that look like their predecessors.
While Microsoft has yet to catch fire in the mobile space, they have received kudos recently for not just copying what Apple and Google have been doing with their respective iOS and Android platforms. Love it or hate it, Microsoft has shown innovation with the design of their Windows Phone platform interface. The live tiles interface offers a new way to stay in touch with what’s going on.
Is Apple playing it safe with its iOS devices? Are they taking too much care not to kill the cash cow that is iOS? What do you think? Is Microsoft the innovator now? Is Apple playing it too safe? Share your thoughts with us in the comments section below. We’d love to hear what you think.
