New York — Apple began its work on the Apple Watch after founder/CEO Steve Jobs died, but over the past year several current and former Apple executives weighed in on what the Apple Watch could mean for the company.
Apple CEO Tim Cook: “I think he would be incredibly proud to see the company that he left us, which I think was one of his greatest gifts to mankind was the company itself, be doing what it’s doing today. I think he’s smiling right now. To me, it’s not as a big deal whether he saw something or didn’t. It’s that his thinking, and his taste, and his incredible perfectionist kind of view and his view that you should always innovate. All of those things are alive and well in the company.”
Apple senior VP of design Jony Ive: “It was not without some trepidation that [we] embarked on the watch. It was different with the phone – all of us working on the first iPhone were driven by an absolute disdain for the cellphones we were using at the time. That’s not the case here. We’re a group of people who love our watches. So we’re working on something, yet have a high regard for what currently exists.’
Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak: “I bought a few of the early smart watches, including Samsung’s, and they were so disappointing. I took them off because they were so much worse than the phone that’s right in my pocket already. Like Apple did with smartphones, one company may point the right way to a smart and useful watch, but it shouldn’t be a replacement for what the phone does, and it should have an unbelievable and fun feeling when you use it.”
Former Apple CEO John Sculley: “If [Steve Jobs] were alive today, I suspect he’d be really fascinated about what’s happening with sensors. When you look at the ability to capture all kinds of information with sensors and then customize services back to individuals, that is so Steve Jobs. That’s the kind of thing he’d have salivated over. I think the next big area of product innovation will be around wearable sensor-type products.”
Former Apple designer Hartmut Esslinger: “Smart watches are stupid. Why would I put cheap electronics on my wrist as a symbol of [my] emotion?”
