In a recent interview with The Seoul Economic Daily in Korea, Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak praised the Apple iPhone over Android. Woz has three iPhones and an iPad, so it should be no surprise that he prefers them over Android, though he does give some tepid praise to the voice recognition of Android on his Nexus One phone. Woz also provided some advice to Korean companies, encouraging them to think outside the box and to not get distracted by feature-overload.
Says Woz:
“Human should be more important and technology should modify its shape and fit into the human world, rather than vice versa. Make sure everyone who uses your device loves it actually. If you develop that love relationship, they will buy your products next time, no matter what.”
I whole-heartedly agree with this sentiment. Technology for its own sake is pretty useless: technology should improve our lives, and the best devices are those the seamlessly integrate into our everyday lives. And the wild success of the iPod and the iPhone are clear examples that love for a product will result in repeat sales.
But let’s not pretend that Woz is an impartial judge of technology: he’s still an Apple employee and investor, so his opinions may be a bit colored. (The title of this post was ironic, you see?) I do take some exception with Woz’s praise for the iPhone. Since updating to IOS 4, my iPhone 3G has experienced more crashes than in the entire time I’ve owned the phone. I’ve heard a number of similar complaints from other iPhone 3G users, too. The calendar is nigh unusable because it takes so long to load. I’ve had the mail application bomb out at least half a dozen times. Everything feels slower and less responsive. I’m certainly not loving my iPhone very much any more.