Apple's Wozniak Hopes IPhone Photos Beat His Samsung Galaxy's - Businessweek

Apple Inc. (AAPL) co-founder Steve Wozniak said he plans to get the iPhone 5 and hopes it takes better photos than the ones he captures with his Samsung Electronics Co. (005930) Galaxy S III.

“I am always excited about every iPhone product because there are always good advances,” Wozniak said in an interview in Shanghai today. “A better quality on the pictures will mean a lot, because when I show people pictures on my iPhone 4 and my Galaxy S III, they always say the Galaxy S III, or even the Motorola Razr, pictures look better.”

Apple, the world’s most-valuable company (AAPL), yesterday unveiled a new iPhone that runs on faster wireless networks, boasts a bigger screen and has a chip that handles tasks more quickly than past versions. It is the company’s first iPhone introduction since the October death of Steve Jobs, who co- founded the company with Wozniak in 1976 in a California garage.

The Cupertino, California-based company unveiled a taller, lighter and speedier iPhone that’s poised to become the fastest selling technology gadget in history -- even as competition accelerates in the $219.1 billion smartphone market. Nokia Oyj (NOK1V), Google Inc. (GOOG)’s Motorola Mobility unit and Suwon, South Korea- based Samsung Electronics all introduced new models this month.

‘Important Steps’

Apple may sell as many as 58 million units of the iPhone 5 by the end of the year, according the average estimate of analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. That could generate as much as $36.2 billion in sales for Apple, according to data (AAPL) compiled by Bloomberg.

“I think they took some very important steps,” Wozniak, 62, said. “I’d like to get a product, use it myself before I judge it and compare to others. I’d like to have it myself and tell what’s good and bad about it.”

Apple yesterday also announced it was upgrading the software that runs on the iPhone to include new mapping and turn-by-turn navigation features, as well as tools that make it easier to share photos and other content with Facebook Inc. (FB), the largest social-networking service. The company also demonstrated a new feature for taking panoramic photos taking feature.

Since the iPhone’s introduction in 2007, competition for Apple has increased.

‘Hate’ Patent Dispute

Samsung, which uses Google’s Android mobile operating system and offers several different models, has emerged as Apple’s biggest competitor in smartphones. Samsung, also one of Apple’s biggest suppliers (AAPL) of components, accounted for 19.1 percent of global smartphone shipments last year, compared with Apple’s 18.8 percent, according to Bloomberg Industries data.

Samsung said this month it has sold 20 million Galaxy S IIIs.

The two companies also are battling in court, with Apple being awarded (AAPL) more than $1 billion last month by a California jury that said Samsung copied the iPhone’s design. Samsung said it will appeal.

“I hate it,” Wozniak said when asked about the patent fights between Apple and Samsung. “I don’t think the decision of California will hold. And I don’t agree with it -- very small things I don’t really call that innovative.

“I wish everybody would just agree to exchange all the patents and everybody can build the best forms they want to use everybody’s technologies.”

--Bonnie Cao in Shanghai with assistance from Adam Satariano in San Francisco. Editors: Anand Krishnamoorthy, Michael Tighe.

To contact Bloomberg News staff for this story: Bonnie Cao in Shanghai at bcao4@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Michael Tighe at mtighe4@bloomberg.net