Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak gives Steve Jobs credit as the driving force behind the conception of Apple, but he doesn’t think Jobs would have met with success if it hadn’t been for him.
When Steve Jobs persuaded Steve Wozniak to start up Apple Computers back in 1976, Wozniak really wasn’t keen on the idea. “I never wanted to start a company, I think Steve was much more important in getting the company going,” admitted Wozniak.
“Steve had the vision of reaching the masses and changing the world much more than I did, so he deserves credit for that more than anything.”
But Wozniak doesn’t believe Jobs could have done it without his own “special genius”, the special genius that made it possible for Wozniak to conceive of and build a personal computer with a keyboard and a monitor and its own programming language, at a time when computers still had front panels with switches and lights. He told Macworld: “I had the vision for a computer that was useable, that was low cost, that was an incredible thing of its time, and that would amaze people.”
“I created my vision. The Apple II was so far ahead as a product of all time, it was the best product ever, better than anyone could ever imagine,” he added.
“Would they have been able to go out and purchase engineering like it’s a commodity, or was my engineering a very special genius?” Wozniak asked. “I think Steve [Jobs] found the right person and I did too. I didn’t go looking, I didn’t really find, as a matter of fact I tried to avoid it, I tried to avoid it!”
“I think it took both of us, it was a really lucky combination. Because he had the goals and he had the drive and the ambition. Both of us being young also helped. And the fact that the big companies didn’t foresee what it would become,” he said, describing his surprise that companies, such as HP, for whom he worked at the time, didn’t believe that personal computing would become as popular as it did.
“How come we could see it when the biggest, smartest companies and financial analysts couldn’t see it? They were saying we’d be nothing, but we believed in it. I believed that the industry would happen.”
“I wanted to be a part of that changing the world for everyone, but not in a profiting way, not in a company way, not in a where I have to make decisions way,” he confessed.
Author: Karen Haslam, Editor
Macworld editor since 2008, Karen has worked on both sides of the Apple divide, clocking up a number of years at Apple's PR agency prior to joining Macworld almost two decades ago.
Karen's career highlights include interviewing Apple's Steve Wozniak and discussing Steve Jobs’ legacy on the BBC. Her focus is Mac, but she lives and breathes Apple.