Apple Name Change Is Good for Company, Co-Founder Woz

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Apple Name Change Is Good for Company, Co-Founder Wozniak Says
2007-01-10 16:13 (New York)


By Connie Guglielmo
     Jan. 10 (Bloomberg) -- Apple Inc. co-founder Steve Wozniak
endorsed the company's decision to drop the word ``computer''
from its name after three decades as the company sells more
consumer electronics.
     ``I like things that are simplified and shorter, so this
name change is good,'' Wozniak, who founded the Cupertino,
California-based company in 1976 with Steve Jobs, said in an e-
mail today. ``Perhaps we made a slight mistake at the start not
to just call ourselves Apple.''
     Jobs announced the name change yesterday after introducing
the iPhone, a device that combines Apple's iPod music and video
player with a cell phone. The company, whose Apple II and
Macintosh computers helped popularize the personal computer,
trimmed its name to highlight a shift to consumer electronics,
Jobs, 51, said at the Macworld conference in San Francisco.
     The iPod, released in 2001, accounted for 40 percent of
Apple's sales last year. The device is the best-selling music
player in the U.S., with a 75 percent share of the market,
according to NPD Group Inc. in Port Washington, New York.
     Apple shares rose $4.43 to a record $97 at 4 p.m. New York
time in Nasdaq Stock Market composite trading after jumping 8.3
percent yesterday on estimates that the iPhone will increase
Apple's sales by more than $1 billion.
     Wozniak, who describes himself as a gadget freak, said he
had given up in ``disgust'' on so-called smart phones -- devices
that combine calling features with e-mail, calendars and Web
surfing. The iPhone has changed his view, he said.
     ``I started imagining that it would take Apple to finally do
one right'' Wozniak said. ``Here it is. I have wanted it for
years.''

--Editor: Turner

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