Woz interview

Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak says innovation is for many top computer companies, but rather volume sales. Wozniak made the comments while in Singapore for an IT industry event. Although he is no longer with Apple, Mr Wozniak says he continues to advise the company on its new offerings. Channel NewsAsia's Derek Cher spoke to him and asked what spurred him if he thought it was becoming more difficult to innovate. "The computer industry per se has been a little bit harder to be innovative for the last 20 years," he said. "There was a period of about 5 to 10 where there were so many opportunities. Even high school kids in their bedroom could start writing programmes that were useful. They sold them and made a lot of money."

When it comes to innovation today, "Apple's almost a monopoly," Woz said. "People know what kind of computer they are going to buy. It's Macintosh, it's Apple. And Microsoft is a monopoly in its way. And it's like those companies don't really care about quality. They are going to sell just as much as ever regardless of quality. Apple strives to be a leader in new technologies and that is one of the things they are really good at. But a lot of perfection in the software haven't followed a lot of rules that are obvious to people. There was a short period of time around the Macintosh, that was the case but it's pretty much gone."

by MacNN Staff