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Yeah...I suspect a lot of people said something similar when it was rumoured they were going into the phone business. I know a car is a very different beast to

Yeah...I suspect a lot of people said something similar when it was rumoured they were going into the phone business. I know a car is a very different beast to a small touchscreen computer that makes phone calls, but at the time everyone was looking at it from the perspective of a computer and entertainment company making a phone in a cut-throat thin-margin industry. What they did is make an iPod Touch with a cellular component, priced it higher than the flag-ship phone of the day and started with a single and not-very-loved service provider in the United States. Now look where they are.

na85 9y ago
A consumer electronics company changing market segments is different than a consumer electronics company that wants to enter the automotive industry. Apple was overly ambitious.
- icanhackit 9y ago
  > a consumer electronics company that wants to enter the automotive industry. I'd argue electric cars paired with automation are as near consumer electronics as they are to the automotive industry. Shedding the engine, transmission, steering column, and pretty much all mechanical systems bar the electric motors and braking systems, why couldn't they design it in California and outsource manufacturing to Hon Hai/Foxconn and their partners the way they do with their phones?
  - semi-extrinsic 9y ago
    > pretty much all mechanical systems bar the electric motors and braking systems ... and the shocks and dampers and steering and servos and diffs and transfer boxes and electronic stability systems and dozens of sensors regularly exposed to harsh conditions and lights and crumple zones and doors and windows and air bags and seat belts and seats and air conditioning and ... Elon Musk said something very true about the myriad of components and OEMs Tesla use - that having 99.9% of the parts on a car available and working, is a lot like having 0% of the parts.
    - icanhackit 9y ago
      You make a good point but my question still stands, why couldn't they design it in California and outsource manufacturing to Hon Hai/Foxconn the way they do with their phones? Unlike Tesla, sourcing the parts wouldn't be Apple's problem.
      - hueving 9y ago
        Because outsourcing car manufacturing doesn't make much sense. The transportation costs eat up most of the savings. That's why Toyotas, Volkswagons, etc sold in the US are made in the US. One shipping container holds 60,000 iphones. One shipping container holds one car.
        ethbro 9y ago
        Also, for historical and political reasons, auto importing tends to be subject to a lot more taxing by customs.
        coredog64 9y ago
        Yep. Look up the chicken tax, or the way that Ford gets around it for their new small van.
        ethbro 9y ago
        Fascinating! Specifically with respect to NAFTA & its possible renegotiation. It also makes me realize how terrifying it must be for major manufacturers to site capital-intensive factories. Wrong country? Or country that becomes wrong country a decade later? 25% tariff.
        tribby 9y ago
        I agree. and it's not just transportation, or even taxes, it's also the cost of labor. iphones are assembled in china because chinese workers are cheaper than automating those particular jobs. cars, on the other hand, are almost entirely made by robots these days.[1] there's not as big a price difference between chinese and american robots as there is between chinese and american humans. apple has a history of entering fairly high-margin markets where the existing products don't look or feel or function very well, and then they give it the jony ive treatment. but tesla is already there, they applied apple's playbook to cars and honestly took much bigger risks to get there than apple ever would. tesla took on a LOT of debt to be competitive, and it'll be a while before they even have profit, much less good margins. it'd be very hard for apple to compete. if apple ever enters the car market, a tesla acquisition is the only thing that would make sense to me. 1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8_lfxPI5ObM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8_lfxPI5ObM

na85 9y ago

A consumer electronics company changing market segments is different than a consumer electronics company that wants to enter the automotive industry. Apple was overly ambitious.

icanhackit 9y ago
> a consumer electronics company that wants to enter the automotive industry. I'd argue electric cars paired with automation are as near consumer electronics as they are to the automotive industry. Shedding the engine, transmission, steering column, and pretty much all mechanical systems bar the electric motors and braking systems, why couldn't they design it in California and outsource manufacturing to Hon Hai/Foxconn and their partners the way they do with their phones?
- semi-extrinsic 9y ago
  > pretty much all mechanical systems bar the electric motors and braking systems ... and the shocks and dampers and steering and servos and diffs and transfer boxes and electronic stability systems and dozens of sensors regularly exposed to harsh conditions and lights and crumple zones and doors and windows and air bags and seat belts and seats and air conditioning and ... Elon Musk said something very true about the myriad of components and OEMs Tesla use - that having 99.9% of the parts on a car available and working, is a lot like having 0% of the parts.
  - icanhackit 9y ago
    You make a good point but my question still stands, why couldn't they design it in California and outsource manufacturing to Hon Hai/Foxconn the way they do with their phones? Unlike Tesla, sourcing the parts wouldn't be Apple's problem.
    - hueving 9y ago
      Because outsourcing car manufacturing doesn't make much sense. The transportation costs eat up most of the savings. That's why Toyotas, Volkswagons, etc sold in the US are made in the US. One shipping container holds 60,000 iphones. One shipping container holds one car.
      - ethbro 9y ago
        Also, for historical and political reasons, auto importing tends to be subject to a lot more taxing by customs.
        coredog64 9y ago
        Yep. Look up the chicken tax, or the way that Ford gets around it for their new small van.
        ethbro 9y ago
        Fascinating! Specifically with respect to NAFTA & its possible renegotiation. It also makes me realize how terrifying it must be for major manufacturers to site capital-intensive factories. Wrong country? Or country that becomes wrong country a decade later? 25% tariff.
      - tribby 9y ago
        I agree. and it's not just transportation, or even taxes, it's also the cost of labor. iphones are assembled in china because chinese workers are cheaper than automating those particular jobs. cars, on the other hand, are almost entirely made by robots these days.[1] there's not as big a price difference between chinese and american robots as there is between chinese and american humans. apple has a history of entering fairly high-margin markets where the existing products don't look or feel or function very well, and then they give it the jony ive treatment. but tesla is already there, they applied apple's playbook to cars and honestly took much bigger risks to get there than apple ever would. tesla took on a LOT of debt to be competitive, and it'll be a while before they even have profit, much less good margins. it'd be very hard for apple to compete. if apple ever enters the car market, a tesla acquisition is the only thing that would make sense to me. 1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8_lfxPI5ObM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8_lfxPI5ObM