This is a really good way of looking at the two companies though I would argue "copying" is a bit strong. I think the author just found a common approach among

This is a really good way of looking at the two companies though I would argue "copying" is a bit strong. I think the author just found a common approach among the two namely that Tesla & Apple both are attempting to operate as a luxury brand pushing high volumes of "cheap" products. It briefly touches upon objective vs subjective quality and does so in a way that it brings back memories of _Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance_. What is quality anyway? The author makes the case that Apple is an inherently quality brand through and through, and to do so, must invest into its own supply chain in order to get quality parts at a cheap cost. He then naturally draws the comparison to the Gigafactory Tesla is building. His conclusion is that the Tesla Model S (which he owns) will be how Tesla is ultimately perceived as a "quality" product. When it cheapens all the parts and sells a 35k car, presumably this will be like Apple selling iPhones. I think it's a worthwhile comparison. It's also something to just generally keep in mind about branding. Many engineers might have snarky things to say about a marketing or executive moves, but customer perception is a huge deal. Android has generally stayed ahead of Apple in terms of releasing mobile features, but the higher-income earners still prefer Apple to Android. Why is that? These are the really interesting discussions, but no of course Tesla is not copying per se.. it's just trying to make a lot of money and well, selling cheap products at high costs because of perceived quality is a hell of a way to do that.