Steve Wozniak, the genius of the Apple company, came to Bucharest yesterday and was present at the IAA global conference, which took place at the Romanian Opera. With the help of those from IAA, I had the opportunity to listen to the man who created the products on the basis of which the Apple company was founded and who ensured that it was successful in the years before the sale of the first personal computer made in the garage of the Jobs family.
Steve Wozniak discussed a lot of fields yesterday, but he also offered some interesting information about the beginnings of Apple, some of which even I have not heard from him. First of all, I leave you in the company of a video that shows the moment the Apple co-founder entered the scene, even this detail being choreographed by his team.
Steve Wozniak created the personal computer
Steve Wozniak created one of the most used electronic products in the world, the personal computer, but contrary to the stories, he was the one who convinced Steve Jobs to join the Computer Club, which motivated him to turn the product into something real. Steve Wozniak stated that he was the man who designed Apple products and worked on assembling them and developing new ones, while Steve Jobs was a good entrepreneur.
Steve Wozniak created the personal computer, assembled the first units sold by Apple, and Steve Jobs took care of finding funds and investors, plus customers. Basically, Steve Wozniak wanted to make a clear separation between the myth "Steve Jobs the inventor" and Steve Jobs the entrepreneur, stating that only the latter statement is true, Steve Jobs not having any major contribution to the invention of the personal computer.
Beyond that, Steve Wozniak said that the first ideas to create a personal computer came to him in primary school and it took 10 years from the idea to the finished product. It all started with two young people without money, but full of hope, Steve Jobs managing to convince Mike Markkula to invest in Apple, and thanks to him everything was organized and Apple went from a "garage" company to a small corporation.
Steve Wozniak on Apple's current paradox
Steve Wozniak said that as long as he worked on products for Apple, he thought about how to make them accessible to people. Although he had long had the idea of making a personal computer, he started assembling it only when he was able to create a product that would be accessible to him, and the common man, not having the financial relaxation of this moment .
Moreover, he then created a simple programming language for the first Apple computers, one for which anyone could also make games. Steve Wozniak created software for which programs could be created so easily that anyone could do it, and computers could even be easily modified, until Steve Jobs imposed his ideas on the complete closure of the Apple platform.
The great paradox of these stories lies in the fact that today Apple Macs are expensive and accessible to a small number of people in configurations that can actually be used for something. Moreover, the macOS platform is avoided by developers because Macs do not have good enough hardware to run games, Steve Wozniak's dreams being diluted in several decades of evolution of the Apple company.
When co-founding Apple, Steve Wozniak had ideas for the first 10 years of the company's products, stating that Steve Jobs didn't understand technology at all, but he knew how to sell it very well.
Steve Wozniak in 2017
Steve Wozniak talked about a lot at the IAA conference, from artificial intelligence to augmented reality, data security, cryptocurrencies, or electric cars. In 2017, Steve Wozniak says that he is almost the same man as when he co-founded Apple, but without financial worries and much more interested in new technologies, compared to then, still trying to make products as if they were thought for him .
As an example, he gave the robot he made with just a few tens of dollars to wash the car when he gets home, or the Tesla car that Elon Musk thought was just for him. Steve Wozniak, at 67 years old, is a very dynamic man, with words ready to answer almost any kind of question about technology that someone might ask him.
Steve Wozniak was not as charismatic as I have seen him in other presentations, without too many jokes, but with intelligent and suitable answers for anyone's questions. Steve Wozniak remains in 2017 one of the most brilliant minds of the world we live in, he remains close to Apple, which will send him an iPhone X to test, but what he created a few decades ago together with Steve Jobs has evolved to the point where it is unrecognizable.
I thank the people from the IAA again for this occasion and I hope it will not be the last one in which such important people arrive in Bucharest.
