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Steve Wozniak thinks Apple should have made a larger iPhone three years ago

Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak has not worked at the company he created with Steve Jobs for nearly three decades, but his thoughts are still well respected within the tech community. In a recent interview with CNN at Capital One’s new Innovation Center in Plano, Texas, he offered up his latest opinion: Apple should have made a larger iPhone three years ago.

“Apple could have had a much bigger share of the smartphone market if it had a larger-screen iPhone for the past three years,” Wozniak told CNNMoney from Capital One’s new Innovation Center in Plano, Texas. “It could have competed better with Samsung.”

The latest numbers from research firm IDC show that Samsung was the top smartphone maker with nearly 24% market share in the third quarter, while Apple trailed behind in second with 12% market share during the three-month period ending September.

Despite being an Apple co-founder, Wozniak is not devoted to the brand by default. Instead, he likes to try out different tech products and see which devices suit him best. “Tech is like a song,” said Wozniak. “You can get all the details from someone else, but you’re not sure you like it until you hear it for yourself.”

Wozniak also mentioned that he was an early adopter of smartwatches, noting that he once strapped an iPod nano to his wrist. Nevertheless, despite trying out some of the first smartwatches to hit the market, Wozniak kept going back to his smartphone because he felt a larger display was still needed.

“I kept saying that I’d like to have a smartphone on my wrist, so I bought a few smartwatches when they first came out.” Wozniak said. “I got rid of them so quick. I got real negative on smartwatches.”

When questioned on the Apple Watch, Wozniak expressed that he feels it is not much more than a glorified fitness tracker. “It’s more distinctive than all the others,” Wozniak said in reference to the Apple Watch. “And who knows? It might sell well. There are a lot of wrists out there.”

In just a matter of months, we’ll find out for sure.

Until next time, Woz.

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Comments

  1. scumbolt2014 - 9 years ago

    Agree. They also shouldn’t have been exclusive with AT&T so long. They shut themselves off from moat of the market for way too long.

    • cjt3007 - 9 years ago

      Lol, well Steve Jobs didn’t even want to deal with carriers in the first place. Apple was originally planning on making their own network/using wifi for calls from what I remember.

      • oshipp - 9 years ago

        I wish they had

  2. Joaquim Inverno - 9 years ago

    Apple makes a ton more money that any other smartphone vendor, Apple has the best App Store and it offers the best experience in hardware and software. Why would they go after market share? Blackberry and Microsoft need market share in order to grow their app ecosystem and to sell more in general, Apple should grow not because it needs more market share, because Apple products are better.

    And trying a lot different smartwatches or to use an iPod nano as a watch doesn’t mean anything when you’re a techie and have as much money as we does, you can do whatever you want, when a normal person does that then they’re allowed to brag.

    • Mike Snoow - 9 years ago

      if apple shares below 10% they could be in real danger. The woz is diplomatic but he has known android overtook iphones 4yrs back with technology which is only now coming to iphones. all iphones have down is played catchup. Even when steve was alive he realized android technology was superior and there r emails to support this. I have had all the features of iphones 6 and more since 2011. i have been making mobile payments for 3yrs

  3. dafthunk - 9 years ago

    I would probably still be using an iPhone if Apple gave the choice of a larger iPhone three years ago. Instead, I laughed at the vertical extension to 4″ and moved from an iPhone 4s to the Galaxy Note 2, Note 3 and now Note 4.

    The white knights will tell you Apple can do no wrong, but I agree with Woz here. Sure Apple isn’t exactly struggling and better late than never, but it was too late for many people.

    • rogifan - 9 years ago

      Do you have any concrete stats to back this up? As it is now Apple can’t keep up with demand.

      • dafthunk - 9 years ago

        Lol, of course not. Just myself and many others I know of who moved away and won’t come back any time soon. I also remember seeing a huge demand for a larger screen option all over the internet leading up to the iPhone 5. Then they announced two more years of a small screen.

        No one said Apple isn’t doing amazingly well, but it also hasn’t been able to compete with large screen phones until now.

    • James Alexander - 9 years ago

      I know more people who go the other direction. Many people who left Apple for Android are now coming back.

      • herb02135go - 9 years ago

        Another Apple – based website has a survey that shows the number of people switching from Android to Apple is extremely low. Not what Apple predicted.

        I wonder why this site doesn’t have that report yet …

  4. Agree. They could’ve prevented Android for growing even more!

  5. piablo - 9 years ago

    Woz was never the business end of Apple, that is clear.

  6. J.latham - 9 years ago

    While I respect Woz, I don’t think the majority of Andriod customers want just a larger display. Maybe it’s just me, but the iPhone 6 is a little too large. I would’ve rathered at least one model with a modest upgrade to 4.2″ or 4.3″ as an iPhone mini this year and this is where the iPhone 5/5s/5c should’ve been to start. As a business move they struck at the right time for 5+ inch displays. After a few years for users to get frustrated at Android and other manufacturers.

  7. PMZanetti - 9 years ago

    Who is this Woz guy who cares so much about marketshare?

  8. James Alexander - 9 years ago

    There is a reason he was not on the business side of Apple. Larger screens were never the biggest thing in the states.

  9. Howie Isaacks - 9 years ago

    Big deal! I don’t care what Wozniak says anymore. He has been irrelevant for many years. He was great with the Apple I and Apple II, but he has contributed nothing since then.

  10. Ralph Hordjen (@hordjen) - 9 years ago

    Why is this backseat CEO still causing headlines?

  11. I saw Woz at the Power Forward event in Tallahassee, Florida on November 5th, and he said the same thing. He basically said it was good to see Apple finally moving away from the idea of they are always right. Basically meaning that their one size fits all didn’t apply to the tech space. He also said he hopes that Apple continues down this road of being more open (i.e. keyboards and extensions) he said Apple didn’t hit it big until iTunes was made available on Windows and then the iPod exploded. He said it would be smart to open iMessage and iTunes on Android, making their reach even further.

    As for watches, it came up in a Q&A session, Woz had a watch on that had to be a least a half inch thick, so people noticed it when he was talking (especially on the big screen next to the stage). He said it was the best watch he’s owned, it contained two vacuum tubes that lit up when his arm came up to see what time it was, and the tube would fill and quickly display the time. I was crazy and I’m sure expensive. As for the Apple Watch, he said it was beautifully design, but that it appeared small and he wasn’t sure how it would look to those who have bigger wrists.

    Very cool discussion.