The Woz Wishes Well for Steve Jobs
Steve Jobs finally decided to step down the position as Apple’s CEO. He will carry on his participation in the company’s affairs as the chairman of the board of directors. Under Job’s leadership, Apple has come a long way since its foundation back 1975, with childhood friend Steve Wozniak.
While Apple is not without its ups and downs, and Jobs’ announcement has shaken an entire industry, Apple cofounder Steve Wozniak told BYTE that he is happy of Jobs decision. The descending CEO has been working so hard all these years and it’s about time he spares time for himself.
“He really has had to sacrifice a lot to run Apple,” Wozniak tells InformationWeek. “I mean, just your time, everybody wants you day and night, that’s what I mean by sacrifices. It takes so much out of anyone to be under just constant pressure and demands like that. Steve needs now to just have some ‘Steve time,’ Wozniak added. “He deserves it.”
People have different takes on Jobs leaving the company. However, most people in the tech sector, including Wozniak himself, believes that Job’s exit will not affect the Apple culture, which the long-term CEO has established and nurtured all these years. This culture has helped launch iTunes, the iPod, iPhone and iPad to success.
“You’ve got to remember. He was surrounded by great, great people at Apple … and those people are still there,” Wozniak told me. “I don’t think the core Apple culture will change because of (Jobs’) leaving, not for a long time. Apple is set up. It just needs to stay financially responsible.” Wozniak recalled one of Jobs’ first moves on returning to Apple was to find all the product lines that were “junk” lines — leading to unsellable waste Apple had to pay for and destroy. Jobs got rid of them all, Wozniak said.
Wozniak is currently chief scientist at Fusion-io, the leading solid state storage players that boasts Apple as one of its biggest clients. Here’s an interview (below) of him with SiliconAngle founder John Furrier at SiliconAngle.tv, discussing flash as the future of storage, and what this means for the enterprise.
As for Job’s recommendation of a new CEO to carry on his legacy, he vouched for COO Timothy Cook. He is a native of Alabama, and an IBM and Compaq veteran. He’s been supervising the company during Job’s total of 13 months leave. Cook got his degree in Industrial Engineering at Auburn University.
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