Technology

Wozniak worried Apple is falling behind on folding smartphones

Company is said to be testing a sleep monitor for future version of smartwatch

Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak: ‘They’re not the leader in areas like the folding phone, and that worries me because I really want a folding phone.’ Photograph: Paul Faith/PA Wire

Tue Feb 26 2019 - 16:45

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.

“They’re not the leader in areas like the folding phone, and that worries me because I really want a folding phone.”

Mr Wozniak was referring to folding phones that competitors Samsung and Huawei recently introduced. Apple’s rivals have taken on its high-price strategy as their own, pricing their folding phones at $1,980 and about $2,600, respectively. Apple recently reported that iPhone revenue declined 15 per cent 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.”

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Mr Wozniak co-founded Apple with Steve Jobs and helped build the first prototypes of Apple computers. A bitcoin advocate, last year he joined a little-known cryptocurrency start-up called Equi Capital.

Apple chief executive Tim Cook unveils the Apple Watch

Sleep tracker

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, according to one of the people. 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.

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. Since the watch went on sale in April 2015, it has become one of the most popular smartwatches. However, it’s just one part of the company’s wearables, home and accessories category, which generated $17.4 billion in 2018 revenue compared with $164.9 billion from the iPhone. – Bloomberg

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