Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak has a history of irritating Apple’s faithful fans for statements implying that Android might actually be a decent operating system. It seems The Woz might be in trouble again this week after suggesting in a recent interview that Android might actually be better than iOS in some ways.
Speaking to The Daily Beast, Woz insisted that the iPhone was still the better phone – his primary phone, in fact – but that “I wish it did all the things my Android does, I really do.” A major advantage of Android over the iPhone, he says, is Android’s built-in navigation system. Though the iPhone has apps for that, Android users get a quality navigation system right out of the box.
Wozniak also spoke about the competitive relationship between Apple and Google in the smartphone market. Many have compared it to the competition between Apple and Microsoft, especially in the ‘90s. Wozniak admits that there is a similarity, but says that the situation is different becase “[t]here’s not as big a difference as there was between Mac and Windows.” In other words, while Windows was (in Woz’s view) always significantly inferior to Mac, Android is much closer to iOS in quality.
Wozniak also had some interesting things to say about Siri, the much-vaunted killer app of the iPhone 4S. Wozniak says that the quality of Siri’s answers has suffered since the iPhone’s launch, often delivering incorrect answers or misunderstanding the question. To make matters worse, Siri’s need to connect to servers via the internet has become a hindrance. Wozniak says “With the iPhone 4 I could press a button and call my wife. Now on the 4S I can only do that when Siri can connect over the Internet. But many times it can’t connect. I’ve never had Android come back and say, ‘I can’t connect over the Internet.’”
Wozniak also voiced a complaint shared by virtually every iPhone 4S owner since the device’s launch in October: battery life. He says that “[w]ith the iPhone, something happened with the new OS or the new phone, and it just started running through the battery so fast. I’ve had a lot of issues with things I have to turn off just to save the battery life.” Lousy battery life has been the chief complaint about the iPhone 4S. Shortly after the device’s launch Apple issued iOS 5.0.1 which was supposed to help address the issue. The forthcoming iOS 5.1 is supposed to offer a fuller fix to the problem.
In spite of his complaints, though, Woz still says that the iPhone is the best smartphone on the market, especially for Mac users and people who want a phone that is simple and easy to use:
The people I recommend the iPhone 4S for are the ones who are already in the Mac world, because its so compatible, and people who are just scared of computers altogether and don’t want to use them. The iPhone is the least frightening thing. For that kind of person who is scared of complexity, well, here’s a phone that is simple to use and does what you need it to.
Do you agree with Woz about iPhone and Android? Let us know in the comments.
[Source: The Daily Beast]