Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak has slammed the iPhone and the new MacBook Air as poorly designed.
Wozniak criticised the iPhone's lack of 3G connectivity, pointing out that 3G is essential for an internet device. He has previously criticised the decision to cut the price of the phone by $200 shortly after launch.
"I was really disappointed when the iPhone was introduced," Wozniak said during a press conference following his keynote speech at the Broadband and Beyond Conference in Sydney today.
The Apple co-founder also criticised the MacBook Air, which he felt had made too many hardware tradeoffs to achieve a thin form factor.
"I don't think it's going to be a hit. I'm trying to figure out a way to make the Air a part of my life because I'm a one-laptop-only person," he said.
"I don't feel it's a benefit if you have to carry the Air plus a DVD player plus a couple of extra dongles to connect to Ethernet things and also maybe an extra hard disk to carry your music."
Wozniak has gained something of a reputation for openly criticising Apple if he feels the company is making a mistake.
He was unhappy when the firm moved to Intel processors, for example, but said that Apple chief executive Steve Jobs "very seldom" calls him up to complain about his stance.
"We're really good friends - never argued over these things - but once in a while he will just have a comment, 'thanks a lot'."
The 3G criticism of the iPhone is justified. Who knows why that wasn't a part of the original design. Maybe it wasn't ready in time for the deadlines Apple set for itself to roll out. Whatever.
The MBAir criticism is off mark by a wide margin however.
"because I'm a one-laptop-only person"
which basically means he shouldn't be trying to make it "a part of his life". The Air is for people who have two computers and want one that is ultra portable. One would think he'd realize that instead of making dumb comments about it. It's not for him, he should get over it.
Ethernet is dead. Wireless is the future. Next we will see power-over-air, and cables will be pointless.
ultra portable? its only a little bit fucking smaller than the mac book. OOOOOHHHHH it's a little bit lighter for the nerds who had a hard time carrying around the normal macbook. stfu
its not just a little bit smaller, at its thinest point it is as thin as my iPhone (or anyones for that matter). Its alot smaller, and loads lighter. Get your facts straight before you go talking about stuff you've clearly only seen in a picture.
If I didn't already have a Macbook Pro, I'd get an air in a heart beat.
(Of course now, who ever wrote that above comment is going to say something like is cousin has one, and he has used both, or some fake story like that)
He is talking from a business standpoint that the fact that the macbook air does not appeal to a broad audience its not going to be a big seller, people who want it want it but they are certainly not a broad and varied market, mostly design oriented americans who need to eat up apples gimmick of the month, and i am a mac fan just think MBAir was not a great idea unless your just gonna want something nice to show people
"Battery not user Replaceable Unlike 99% of other laptops out there, the battery is not user replaceable. This means no swapping out of a secondary battery to alleviate dependency on an AC source. Also, this leaves customers at the mercy of Apple for replacements. Good news is that the announced cost is a reasonable $129 for a battery replacement that includes installation.
No Optical Drive This one is obvious. I must say though, I am impressed with how Apple manages to turn any flaw into a selling point -- just like how they turned the iPod Shuffle's lack of a screen into a "Life is Random" feature. Without an optical drive, Apple claims that you can experience true wireless productivity by buying and watching your movies from iTunes instead of watching them from your DVD.
Mono Speakers, Fixed RAM, Single Link DVI Output...."
suck it MBA
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