Woz says he'd mull return to Apple if asked
During an interview, Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak says he'd consider a return to the company if he was called on to rejoin it in an official capacity.
Steve Wozniak, the man who co-founded Apple with current CEO Steve Jobs and Ronald Wayne says he'd "consider" coming back to work for the company if asked.
However that statement, which came out during an interview with Reuters, comes with some strings attached, specifically about the openness of the company's products.
"My thinking is that Apple could be more open and not lose sales," Wozniak told the outlet. "I'm sure they're making the right decisions for the right reasons for Apple."
Wozniak is a well-known tinkerer and put together the predecessor to the first Apple computer out of off-the-shelf components, as well as writing his own version of BASIC to run on it. Following that, and before teaming with Jobs to produce computers Apple would go on to sell commercially, Wozniak even distributed the design to others in a computer club so they too could make their machines.
Apple now sells devices that have done away with the idea of self-servicing, instead pushing customers to go through the company's support network when seeking repairs, as well as selling just one computer (the Mac Pro) that's fully customizable postpurchase.
Wozniak, who has not actually worked for Apple since 1987, still receives a paycheck and holds stock in the company. For the past three years, he's worked for data storage company Fusion-io as its chief scientist. The question of whether Wozniak would rejoin Apple to play an active part in product development and production comes at a time when current CEO and Apple co-founder Steve Jobs is on his third medical leave, and after a group of shareholders unsuccessfully pushed the company to set up and detail a CEO succession plan.