Personally I don't get why his thoughts on things are given such importance. Each Apple release he appears at some fan line to go "Hey, everyone remember me! I'm the guy who was involved with Apple for a short period!". Not trying to be cynical, but seriously I suspect he's a major irritation for Jobs.
His real contribution to Apple was for four years of the company's 34 year history.
If nothing else, he created the expectation that superhuman technical feats would be performed on a daily basis, which exists to this day, and might well have stayed true to some degree even during the between-Jobs years, even if said feats were not in particularly productive directions.
...during which he did things that no one else on the planet was capable of doing.
You call his involvement (12 years as a company, and I believe 5 before Apple Comps was incorporated) 'short' and his dismiss his opinion on a piece of tech when he's probably part of the elite who's opinion actually matter. Hell Steve Jobs was never a 'techy' so to speak, so if I had to take anyone's opinion seriously (regardless I agree or not) about a piece of technology such as this is Steve Wozniak.
Yes, if you want to talk to someone about 1970s era personal computer innovations, the Woz is almost certainly the goto guy. Granted.
Is he important? Sure, he is important to a certain era in Apple's history. The part before the company would have dissolved as an ongoing enterprise if it wasn't for some strategic rescuing by Microsoft.
Are his comments about pretty much anything in the modern era even insightful or of particular relevance, beyond "this guy worked on the Apple I" colour commentary? I don't think so. I suspect that the Woz's primary reason for appearing in Apple lines and giving "grate on Steve Jobs" quotes is so the reporter can bring up that he works for FusionIO.
But yeah, your Dyed in the Wool Woz fanclub membership card is in the mail.
I'm actually not a fan of Woz, far from it actually, but I give credit where credit is due. The man deserves respect, and let's be honest, if he gets coverage it's because people want to know what he has to say.
I'm sorry but I'd rather take Woz opinion (which I a lot of time disagree with) and give it the weight it deserves because of what he's done, as opposed to giving some .NET wunderkind more credibility than he should have.
But yeah whatever you have a bone to pick with Woz and that is your choice; however I'm not going to waste any more of my time trying to explain to you why Woz deserves respect and the fact that people want to hear his opinion, which means people see value in it, regardless of what dislike you might have with the man's persona.
That's nice, but a false dichotomy. I questioned the relevance of the Woz's opinion, but that doesn't in any way come at the benefit of someone else's opinion, much less some arbitrary ".NET wunderkind".
In this case, after Android has already taken a pretty strong sales lead, the Woz tells us that Android is probably going to take the lead some day. Prophetic.
But yeah whatever you have a bone to pick with Woz...regardless of what dislike you might have with the man's persona.
Lame.
No. That has to be Jobs. Even back in the days of Apple I and Apple II, it seems like Jobs made Apple the company, even if it was Woz spearheading Apple the computer. Did Woz even work on anything at Apple beyond the Apple II series? (I don't know, but I don't think so)
However, I don't know if this makes Woz any less qualified than anyone else on the planet to comment on cell phones. He certainly strikes me as more qualified than most.