From Apple's perspective, yes. That's exactly the playbook that built the iPhone into what it is today. People forget that when the iPhone launched, carriers h

From Apple's perspective, yes. That's exactly the playbook that built the iPhone into what it is today. People forget that when the iPhone launched, carriers had an iron grip on their customers, to the extent of "pay us to put ringtones on our device that temporarily happens to be in your hands." iPhone-in-car would have let Apple dangle some interesting data deals in front of car manufacturers, while retaining ultimate control, before the car manufacturers realized data was a monetizable revenue stream.