Apple founder Steve Wozniak predicts death of the iPod

[LinuxMint-4]

Apple founder Steve Wozniak predicts death of the iPod

http://tech.blorge.com/Structure:%20/20 ... -the-ipod/



The Apple iPod revolutionized the music industry. It gives people all the music they want in their pockets, all encased in a tiny device small enough to fit snugly in their hand. But if Steve Wozniak is right, the days of the iPod could soon be over, as he predicts its death is imminent.

Steve Wozniak, otherwise known as Woz, or the second Steve, founded Apple alongside Steve Jobs in 1976. Woz has always been the quiet, geeky one, and while Steve Jobs continues to run the company behind the iPhone, Mac, and iPod, Wozniak retired from Apple in 1987. But that by no means lessens his views on the company, where it’s headed, and the general state of the technology market.

In a recent interview with The Telegraph, Wozniak seemed to go all out to annoy Apple’s press office. On the future demise of the iPod, he said:

The iPod has sort of lived a long life at number one. Things like, that if you look back to transistor radios and Walkmans, they kind of die out after a while.

It’s kind of like everyone has got one or two or three. You get to a point when they are on display everywhere, they get real cheap and they are not selling as much.

While radios and Walkmans have had their day in the sun before slowly fading away, I personally think the iPod still has some life left in it yet. They are indeed everywhere, and almost everyone I know has one. But most of those people also want to upgrade to a newer model iPod, so sales aren’t going to drop any time soon. Unless, of course, this recession gets as bad as predicted.

However, what could signal the end for the iPod is the emergence of bigger and better smart phones. As the capacities and feature sets increase, people may find themselves using their phones as portable media players. But then Apple also has this market covered with the 3G iPhone.

Although Wozniak even speaks out about Apple’s latest and possibly greatest product, saying:

Consumers aren’t getting all they want when companies are very proprietary and lock their products down. I would like to write some more powerful apps than what you’re allowed.

Lastly, but probably most worrying, is his assessment of the current technology market, and how the recession could have a devastating effect. He states:

It is time for the whole computer industry to maybe have a bit of a slowdown. For twenty years we have been in this replacement and upgrade market. It is very easy to postpone that when there are financial irregularities.

Wozniak is the geeky one of the two Steves, but he also seems to be the most honest. While Jobs will always follow the party line, the one he is dictating, Woz doesn’t seem to have any problem in telling it like it is. And if his predictions do come true then all of us with an interest in the technology market better tighten our belts.

[Claudio]

I've always had a respect for Woz, and this affirms it. Even though he does have a love for Apple, he's not afraid to criticize the state of his beloved company and its current products, especially the iPhone and the politics behind it. It seems that Apple's balance has tipped to one side, as Jobs and Wozniak were basically the Yin and Yang of Apple.

To me, Woz exemplifies one of the things that I've always loved about Apple and the Mac, and it's the same spirit that I see (and have seen) in the free software and open source community. Unfortunately, that spirit had left Apple long, long ago....I believe it was sometime when Jobs came back...

[eddie]

I think there are some great opportunities in the tech industry if you look for them. Specializing in re-purposing existing equipment might a real opportunity. A lot of linux distros specializing in legacy type equipment now. Microsoft and Apple so far are ignoring this part of this market. It could come back to haunt them. Especially if companies tighten their belt and look for ways not to have to buy new equipment and software. That old computer in the garage might actually gain in value to at least a small degree. OF course as the economy might get better, that will change. Ultimately the future is in low power high utility machines. Coming out with cpu's like the atom may be the savior for the industry. if the ipods and such can run rockbox and the such, their demise will be lessened. I predict the laptops will be replaced with ipod size solar powered units that can connect to tv's and portable flexible keyboards. You will take your computer with you in your pocket or briefcase. Traditional wifi will be in the past and all the internet and networking will be done via built in radio type modems. The equivalent of the dick tracy watch will be a reality. the company that can do that has the future in their pocket. A complete merging of the communication and information technology industries is eminent. The iphone and the android are just the tip of the iceberg for the new class of personal computer. Eventually interfaces will be either embedded in you brain or reside as a helmet on your head and let the brain act as a computer. For people with learning disabilities, the interface will have a secondary computer to add mental power in that respect. doctors would be able to the equivalent of telnet into your brain during comas. Privacy will be abolished and the government will program your brains for it's needs as required by the long held law inspired by edward enigma. The there should have to be new drug laws. TUI - thinking (or trying to) under the influence. TWi - thinking while intoxicated. Hmmm maybe these ideas should be in a sci-fi novel.

[LinuxMint-4]

I think there are some great opportunities in the tech industry if you look for them. Specializing in re-purposing existing equipment might a real opportunity. A lot of linux distros specializing in legacy type equipment now. Microsoft and Apple so far are ignoring this part of this market. It could come back to haunt them. Especially if companies tighten their belt and look for ways not to have to buy new equipment and software. That old computer in the garage might actually gain in value to at least a small degree.

Microsoft had a great idea with Win FLP, It was a Lite version of XP that can run on lower hardware computers. It was never sold to the public, they had the opportunity and dropped the ball. Linux benefited from Microsoft's mistake.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Fu ... Legacy_PCs

[eddie]

Yea win_flp was not as good as it was cracked up to be. I played with it and it seemed doggedly slow that you miight as well run the regular xp, Tinyxp would have left it in the dust. When making a choice of os'es years ago I went with windows 95 instead of slackware. I could still use my dos programs under windows and it was only 10 disks instead of the many many disks of slackware that yet did not easily support the less expensive ide drives. If I knew then what I know now and had been patient, I would have stayed with slackware. Microsoft should have taken the time to fix windows 98, they could have kept the market. Microsoft has to do at things at least twice to get something halfway working nt 3.5 >> nt4, win95 >> win98, and etc while you still have to pay the full price for both versions. Win-ce was probably one of their best ideas it is a shame they did not take advantage of it and put it on more affordable devices. They did get it on quite a few overpriced handheld devices. The ipaq i think had built in phone, but it was so expensive if compaq had not had troubles they could have really stolen the show in that area. MS also put win-ce on quite a few thin clients that were designed to work with citrix. It has been replaced with vista for embedded systems now. Where I used to work they used the xp embedded for the thin clients. They were a real maintenance headache to me. The ironic thing that is even up to windows xp can be run from boot to command line mode with networking. It is a shame that no third parties to my knowledge ever really took advantage of this to build their own gui or even set it up as a low end home server. Maybe licensing was an issue or everyone was mouse crazy. Windows 7 is supposed to have this feature and take advantage of it. With linux taking over it probably will not matter., If microsoft was smart they would make their own version of a lean running wine or retool (aka fix) windows xp, ce, or 98 for low end machines. I bet they would make another fortune.