Published in News

Wozniak predicts iPod's demise

by on10 October 2008

Image

Believes it's time for an IT slowdown


In a chat
with The Daily Telegraph, Apple founder Steve Wozniak had quite a few grim forecasts for Apple and the industry as a whole.

Wozniak believes tech stocks are generally overvalued and warns over investment in Web 2.0 companies, primarily social networking sites, could even cause a limited dotcom crash. He also agrees with the recent Apple stock downgrade. Apple shares fell from a $179 high in August to $100 last week.

Talking about technology and actual product, Wozniak gives Apple no quarter. He claims the iPod is doomed already and warns about locking down the iPhone in face of open source competition, primarily Android phones such as the G1. The trouble with the iPod, as Woz sees it, is that everybody's got a couple already and he fears market fatigue. Although it has to be said Apple keeps offering a huge variety of iPod flavors in a lasting attempt to rekindle punters' interest.

Both Wozniak and Jobs don't like the fact that their customers' loyalty is starting to look like a religion, although we would rather call it a sect. "With a religion you're not allowed to challenge anything. I want our customers to challenge us," says Wozniak, calling for more influence on development of future products by Apple users themselves.

More here.

Last modified on 11 October 2008
Rate this item
(0 votes)