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Joanna Goodman reports from Apps World. Camera work and video editing by Sam Mardon
The future is mobile and it's all about apps! As proof of this, the keynote session on day two of Apps World at London's Earl's Court last week featured Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak. The video attached to this report is longer than we would normally make, but there are some points about the way we develop, market and use hardware and apps that are relevant to every technology-related business, not least legal IT. And we heard quite a lot about the man himself.
The format was an informal interview with Woz by wired.co.uk editor Nate Lanxon. The tension in the room was palpable - it was also beyond crowded with standing room three or four deep on all sides of the Developer World stage. After a warm-up by Ingrid Lunden of TechCrunch, Woz appeared, along with his unusual metal business cards - which apparently are useful for cutting steaks on a plane.
Woz believes that apps are the future - and choosing a smartphone is about apps rather than features. He still likes the iPhone best. However, he had a good word to say about some of Apple's rivals, adding that the guy behind Android had a strong Apple background and the Galaxy S3 and Galaxy Note are “pretty good phones”. He is not keen on the Windows phone as it doesn't offer voice commands.
To watch this video on YouTube, click here
Wearable tech - size is importantSize is important and products are getting smaller. Woz likes the large scale display of the HTC One and the Galaxy Note. However he also conceded that 6in devices are probably a little too large.
As devices get smaller, they get more personal and closer to you. Woz is keen on wearable tech, particularly smart watches. He wants his smart watch to tell him when to turn around to spot a pretty girl!
Woz is wearing an iPod Nano on one wrist - he likes the scrolling mechanism - and on the other wrist is a bizarre 140V vacuum tube watch which confuses airport security (along with his metal business card).
Thinking again about the scale of personalised devices - Woz would like a wearable smartphone. While smartphones can be too big, smart watches are complicated because they are too small. He is contemplating the idea of wearing a flip-open watch worn on the inside of the wrist. He is also keen on Google Glass. Although he doesn't own one - yet - he likes the fact that it's self-contained. Woz likes the idea of voice control for every single app, like AppleScript for apps.
The timing is apposite as this interview was the day after the Apple announcement of iPad Air. When asked about the new iPads, Woz was hoping for more storage. Why? Like 40% of Americans, he doesn't have broadband at home! This was surprising until he explained that it is not available where he lives in Silicon Valley. He travels a lot and carries a lot of personal media, and he wanted a 256GB iPad so that he could carry all the seasons of The Big Bang Theory with him. He was pleased with the upgraded MacBook Pro and he has already installed Maverick.
“In the early days of computing start-ups were unusual. Although California was a hot spot, there was no set formula. Now, things are different. If you have a winner you earn a lot of money. When we started Apple our business was accidental. Steve Jobs did all the business on the phone.”
“Publicity matters a lot. We had a lot of publicity because nobody was against us. No big companies thought our personal computers would be successful. Little computers that you could have in your own home were a hot story - until we became successful.”
“We started with a really advanced product - the Apple ][ which provided all of Apple's revenue and profits for the first ten years of the company. We believed it was the future, but the market is a tough place and it is tougher now. It is easier to write a great app than to convince people to buy it.”
Apple was different from most technology companies because it was marketing driven rather than engineering driven. What is good marketing? “More than anything else it is being a user of your product”, says Woz. “You have to make friends with the end user.” But engineers are still important. “They think of clever ways to solve problems and make things work.”
“Excellence is absolutely important for every product. You might just change one thing, but it is worth giving ideas time to develop even if it interferes with your schedule.” Innovation requires a combination of creative thinking and technical skill. People continually approach Woz with new products and ideas and although he is generally time poor, in 2006 he joined Fusion-io, a leading supplier of fast SSDs. He is pleased that the new MacBook Pro now has a 1TB SSD.
Woz says that his most emotional day at Apple was when Steve Jobs announced the Macintosh and the seminal 1984 Macintosh ad still represents what Apple stands for. It is fine with him that Apple seems to be on a plateau at the moment. It is not important that every announcement isn't groundbreaking, because Apple's core values (sorry) remain the same and the products do not disappoint. “You can't come up with totally new product every year”.
Apple's secrecy in terms of innovation is another part of its identity and helps deliver its strategy not to disappoint. Woz believes that the fact that he showed the Lisa computer to Microsoft helped Bill Gates plan Windows. “We didn't share the iPod and the iPhone until we shared them with the world. It is good for Apple that it runs its business with a tight ecosystem,” he says, adding that he is not necessarily in favour of that approach in every situation.
Woz is strong on personalisation and some of his comments are close to anthropomorphising personal technology - particularly wearable devices “It will be like your best friend”. He particularly likes voice enablement so that you can talk to devices, like you'd talk to a person. His favourite apps are “the ones that make my life easier” such as Siri - since before Apple bough it - and Foursquare. He says he only uses about 30 apps.
Computers can do things fast but the method has to come from the human brain. “You used to ask a person with a brain a difficult question and now you ask something beginning with GO and it's not God,” says Wozniak. “We never invented the internet to be a brain. Google replaces a lot of what we used to use brains for.”
Woz used to be sceptical about artificial intelligence, but recent developments such as the ability to “speak a natural language to Siri and having it understand me” are bringing him round to the idea that it will improve, making phones and wearable devices “like a little person that's with you all the time. It's going to be like my best friend someday,” he says.
Although the session with Woz was not industry specific, the points covered are relevant to the legal sector. Mobile and BYOD - bring your own device - are hot topics, not least because of the dilemma created by the sale of BlackBerry around which devices to support. Law firms and vendors are developing mobile apps and as has been said before, it is only a matter of time before the availability, usability and pricing of apps transforms the legal software industry. Legal, like other highly regulated sectors, has to balance mobility with security and openness with data protection and privacy considerations.
Woz combines a genuine love of technology with a rebellious sense of fun. He told us anecdotes about printing his own money that meets the official standards and is legal to spend! He made himself an identity card on which he described himself as working for the Department of Defiance! He loves Siri and the Big Bang Theory. He has fun with Raspberry Pi. He does not like the Jobs movie, although he did like Pirates of Silicon Valley. He is incredibly approachable, and it was great to meet him after the session; he posed for photos with many of us and autographed various books and devices. Woz said technology would become like a best friend. As one blogger wrote, we all wanted to be his best friends too.
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