“Daniel Kottke was one of Apple’s first employees, assembling the company’s earliest kit computers with Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs in a California kitchen. In 1974, Jobs and Kottke backpacked across India in search of themselves; now, they are industry legends. Along the way, he debugged circuit boards, helped design the Apple III and the Mac, and became host of Palo Alto cable TV show The Next Step,” Avi Solomon reports for BoingBoing.

Avi: What was Steve Job’s unique contribution to Apple?

Daniel: Between Woz and Jobs, Woz was the innovator, the inventor. Steve Jobs was the marketing person. But, even to look back at the Apple ][ that was a lot about product design. That was kind of the seeds of Steve Jobs developing his design talents with the lightweight plastic case, even though it was never intended as anything portable… how fortunate for Steve that he had Jonathan Ive. Jonathan Ive was already on the staff at Apple when Steve came to Apple. So Steve just saw a good thing and latched onto it. Steve's a self-taught guy. But Woz didn't have that kind of vision. Woz was more about making do with parts; it's all about functionality. Steve Jobs brought the design aspect to it.

Daniel Kottke, Apple employee #12, on Steve Jobs, Woz, and more:

Read more in the full article here.

[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader "Lynn Weiler" for the heads up.]