Co-founder Wozniak urges Apple to make folding phone
Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak doesn’t want to wait for a folding iPhone.
“Apple has been a leader for quite a long time in a few areas such as touch ID, facial ID, and easy payment with the phone,” Mr Wozniak said in a Bloomberg TV interview. “They’re not the leader in areas like the folding phone, and that worries me because I really want a folding phone,” he said.
Mr Wozinak was referring to folding phones that competitors Samsung and Huawei Technologies recently introduced.
Apple’s rivals have taken on its high-price strategy as their own, pricing their folding phones at €1,744 and about €2,290, respectively.
Apple recently reported that iPhone revenue declined 15% in the fiscal first quarter from a year earlier.
Mr Wozniak is optimistic about Apple’s future, with the company branching out in a range of projects outside of its core iPhones market. However, he still prefers “my Roku” to Apple TV.
“They just got so successful on the iPhone and that was their whole business for a long time,” he said. “Now they’re branching out, so a lot of their businesses have been very good,” he said.
Mr Wozniak co-founded Apple with Steve Jobs and helped build the first prototypes of Apple computers.
Meanwhile, Apple is said to be testing a sleep monitor for a future version of its smartwatch, a feature that would bolster the company in the health-and fitness-tracking market.
The company has been using the sleep-tracking feature for several months with testers at secret sites around its California headquarters, according to sources.
If the functionality is successful in the testing stages, the company plans to add it to the Apple Watch by 2020.
The company has released new versions of the Apple Watch each autumn since 2016.
Sleep tracking on the Apple Watch would reduce a competitive advantage that longtime fitness-wearable developer Fitbit has had on the market.
Besides Fitbit, Withings, formally known as Nokia Health, also makes sleep-tracking gadgets.
A new Apple Watch wouldn’t be the iPhone maker’s first foray into sleep-tracking hardware.
In May 2017, Apple acquired Finnish startup Beddit, which makes a sleep-tracking sensor strip.
Apple sells the product on its website under the Beddit brand and launched an updated version at the end of last year. As sales growth of its signature product, the iPhone, has slowed, Apple has pointed investors to its plethora of other devices, including the Apple Watch.
