Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak has said he believes the company should have split into different divisions years ago, as he called for greater competition among big technology firms.
Asked to give his view on breaking up large companies, he told Bloomberg he is “pretty much in favour” of doing so. On Apple specifically, he said he felt the company should have shaken things up some time ago — though he appeared to suggest it should have been done to help its engineers work more freely, rather than over antitrust concerns.
“I wish Apple on its own had split off a long time ago and spun off independent divisions to faraway places and let them work independently, like Hewlett-Packard did when I worked there,” he said.
Wozniak has previously praised his time at Hewlett Packard, saying the company allowed its engineers to work freely — going into the office whenever they wanted to work on their own designs. But on the broader subject of the tech industry in general, he said companies should allow more competition.
“I think big tech has gotten too big, it’s too powerful a force in our life, and it’s taken our choices away. It’s hard to escape,” he said.
He added he believes Apple is the “best of the companies” because it focuses on making money through new products rather than “tracking and following” people. But he said the likes of Facebook and Google should offer users “a choice to pay for almost no tracking”.