Steve Wozniak: 'I wish to God that Apple and Google were partners'

Fruity firm's co-founder dreams of unholy tech alliance

Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak has called upon Samsung, Google and Apple to abandon their differences and start working together for the good of the tech world.

In an interview with the BBC, Woz said that squabbling between tech firms was strangling innovation.

He said: "I believe you should have a world where you've got to license something at a fair price. There are good things I see on Samsung phones that I wish were in my iPhone. I wish Apple would use them and could use them, and I don't know if Samsung would stop us.

"I wish everybody just did a lot of cross-licensing and sharing the good technology, all our products would be better, we'd go further. I do wish they were more compatible."

His urge for a digital detente was sparked when using Siri, Apple's voice-recognition software. According to Woz, Siri is just not as accurate as Google's Android speech detection software.

"Sometimes I say 'Go to Joe's Diner' and [Siri] doesn't know where Joe's Diner is. And very often usually I find out that Android does."

So what's the solution? Well, according to Woz, it's time for Google to stop being so damned selfish and let Apple share its toys.

"I wish to God that Apple and Google were partners in the future," he added.

It doesn't seem like a very likely outcome. But in a parallel world where Woz was still co-King of Cupertino, Google and Apple would already be working together.

"If I were there, it would be pretty likely," he continued. "I'm probably wrong, there's probably an awful lot I don't know about the business concerns and one thing you've got to remember is a company has always got to make money."

Of course, Woz is pretty much free to say what he wants, having left Apple many moons ago and being almost as beloved to fanbois as the fruity führer himself, Steve Jobs.

With this in mind, we don't expect to see Samsung, Google and Apple holding hands any time soon. ®