Steve Wozniak: Apple Should Make an Android Phone

At the Apps World North America conference in San Francisco, Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak gave WIRED a wide-ranging interview, touching on everything from his preferred iPhone 5s color (he has all three) to the fictional operating system in the movie Her. But his most interesting comment by far was a heretical recommendation for his former company: Apple, he thinks, should release an Android handset.

"There's nothing that would keep Apple out of the Android market as a secondary phone market," said Wozniak-who, it should be noted, is no longer involved in the day-to-day workings of the company. "We could compete very well. People like the precious looks of stylings and manufacturing that we do in our product compared to the other Android offerings. We could play in two arenas at the same time." 

Such an iAndroid device is an unlikely prospect, to say the least, but it's not technically impossible. Android is an open-source operating system software based on the Apache Software License 2.0, and is available for any handset maker to adopt and develop. Apple could even fork Android, as Amazon has, to create a version of the OS more in line with Apple's aesthetic. (Apple would, however, need to separately license Google applications such Maps and Gmail to the device.) 

Despite how that suggestion might sound, Wozniak was generally bullish on his former company, rejecting the notion that innovation at Apple has stalled out. When asked about Apple's much-remarked-on failure last year to introduce a new category–such as a smartwatch or TV, both long rumored to be in the works–Woz countered that he believes Apple is waiting for the right time to release the right product.