“Apple Inc. has kept its power to determine the course of consumer electronics even as it faces tougher competition in mobile phones and tablets, said Steve Wozniak, who co-founded the company with Steve Jobs in 1976,” Cornelius Rahn reports for Bloomberg. “Companies such as Amazon.com Inc. and Google Inc. ‘all have great ideas, but sometimes you need a critical mass of loyal users that will instantly buy and go this direction,’ Wozniak said in an interview at Bloomberg’s Berlin office this week. ‘Apple is really good at setting a standard with a new device. Apple still has its halo in that regard.’”

“Apple should consider opening up its ecosystem, for instance by allowing buyers of mobile devices running Microsoft Corp. or Google Android to use the iTunes media-management software, Wozniak said,” Rahn reports. “Wozniak, who has a black and a white iPhone 5, using Verizon Wireless and AT&T Inc., respectively, said he expects Microsoft’s Windows Phone software to gain ‘enough critical mass to keep going with their tablets and phones’ as the company is present in more markets than Apple.”

Rahn reports, “BlackBerry will ultimately have to switch to the Android operating system, he said, adding that the company’s ‘good reputation as a hardware builder’ and their brand should provide enough differentiation for the company’s products.”

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