Is Apple Losing Its Cool?

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) co-founder Steve Wozniak seems to think so — at least, if the Cupertino-based tech company doesn’t start making some major changes pretty soon. In a recent interview with Bloomberg, he expounded upon increasing competition from rivals like Samsung (SSNLF.PK) and slumping post-September market shares.

His main suggestions? Open up the Apple ecosystem rather than relying primarily on the notion of being a premium brand. ”We used to have these ads, I’m a Mac and I’m a PC, and the Mac was always the cool guy,” recalls Wozniak. “And ouch, it’s painful, because we kind of are losing that.” Wozniak co-founded Apple with Steve Jobs in 1976 and left the company in 1985. He currently works as chief scientist at Fusion-io Inc. (NYSE:FIO), which produces data-storage computers.

Still, Wozniak cuts the firm a little slack, particularly in comparison to companies like Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) and Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN), which “all have great ideas, but sometimes you need a critical mass of loyal users that will instantly buy and go this direction. Apple is really good at setting a standard with a new device. Apple still has its halo in that regard.”