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Great. While this feels years overdue the iPad was first released in 2010 and auto companies are terribly slow at change. And cars take years to cycle through

Great. While this feels years overdue the iPad was first released in 2010 and auto companies are terribly slow at change. And cars take years to cycle through the global economy - mine is 15 years old. So perhaps velcro or a stand, an iPad, and bluetooth or wire to the radio is a cheap alternative. Or perhaps we will se an aftermarket service as with car radios. The initial launch partners (Ferrari, Hyundai, Honda, Jaguar, Mercedes Benz and Volvo) are all "foreign", which speaks volumes about the adeptness of the US domestic manufacturers. <edit - and yes, electric self-autonomous cars are the endgame. So will this be the control interface?>

dba7dba 13y ago
You can't blame car companies for resisting change. They can't send out patches. Their product life cycle is a few years, maybe even a decade, not a year... Funny to see Hyundai called a great marquee by apple... In S Korea, Samsung is considered THE marquee company and Hyundai Motor is a few steps below it...
- chipotle_coyote 13y ago
  Going to go out on a limb here and say that Samsung will not be one of Apple's partners on this project. I'm over in the States, but are you sure that's really true about Samsung Motors, by the way? After about ten minutes of searching just now, the story looks very different -- Samsung may be a marquee brand in most other markets, but it looks like they're a complete disaster as an auto company. Renault took majority ownership of Samsung Motors in 2000. And their sales have been plummeting since 2010; they're behind both Hyundai and Kia in South Korea, and slashed a rather staggering 80% of their workforce in 2012. One report from that time period said that Samsung wanted to take their name off "Renault Samsung Motors" but Renault wouldn't let them.
  - dba7dba 13y ago
    Sorry I wasn't clear about my statement. I meant in S Korea in general Samsung as a brand is considered a notch above Hyundai brand. I wasn't talking about car business. Just in general Samsung is considered more sophisticated and a brand notch above Hyundai.
- cmelbye 13y ago
  Samsung makes cars?
  - dba7dba 13y ago
    Yes, but generally considered a flop. However I think Samsung is planning to reboot their car business with the new wave of electric cars. Why I think that? There were rumors that Tesla was talking to Samsung about Samsung making batteries for Tesla, mainly because Tesla wanted to increase supply AND diversify supplier (going from Pasasonic only to Panasonic/Samsung). Considering Samsung's reputation as a reliable supplier for quality/scale, it was a good idea. Even Apple considers Samsung as essential for their parts due to quality/scale. The rumors were reported for months. But nothing came out of it. And then we started hearing about Tesla building ITS OWN billion dollar battery factory in cooperation with Panasonic. So I started thinking WHAT happened? My guess is that Tesla wanted guarantee that Samsung would NOT get into electric car business in America (not unreasonable looking at apple/samsung), but Samsung didn't want to go along with it. I think Samsung is willing to lose the battery business with Tesla to have another crack at the new (electric) car business again. The Dell/samsung deal is a good example. Around 2000, Dell/Samsung signed a 10-year part deal. This was at the height of the RAM crisis (due to shortage prices were wildly fluctuation, if available at all). Samsung was up-and-coming RAM maker and Dell wanted to a secure supply of RAM. Dell signed deal with Samsung and Samsung agreed to meet parts demand from Dell (RAM, cddrive, monitor etc). It was a billion dollar, 10-year deal. Along with it, Samsung agreed to withdraw from PC business in US at the request of Dell (unknown to public at the time). This I think Samsung regretted later as Samsung was forgotten as a PC maker in US. In the decade of 2000-2010, I remember reading about good Samsung laptop reviews on notebookreview.com but you couldn't buy them in US. They were available only in S Korea/Asia/Europe/etc, but not in US. One of earlier very popular Dell laptop (everyone I knew had one) was a rebadged Samsung laptop actually. Basically Samsung was locked out of PC business in America and it cost them dearly in brand recognition in US, which Samsung apparently wants to avoid. In a way, Samsung not agreeing the possible Tesla's request is reasonable (I should admit I have no proof of it but circumstantial evidences support it). Samsung is ALREADY in car business (albeit it's a flop) and with the new generation of electric cars that will replace gas powered cars, Samsung made correct choice of not agreeing to Tesla's request.

dba7dba 13y ago

You can't blame car companies for resisting change. They can't send out patches. Their product life cycle is a few years, maybe even a decade, not a year... Funny to see Hyundai called a great marquee by apple... In S Korea, Samsung is considered THE marquee company and Hyundai Motor is a few steps below it...

chipotle_coyote 13y ago
Going to go out on a limb here and say that Samsung will not be one of Apple's partners on this project. I'm over in the States, but are you sure that's really true about Samsung Motors, by the way? After about ten minutes of searching just now, the story looks very different -- Samsung may be a marquee brand in most other markets, but it looks like they're a complete disaster as an auto company. Renault took majority ownership of Samsung Motors in 2000. And their sales have been plummeting since 2010; they're behind both Hyundai and Kia in South Korea, and slashed a rather staggering 80% of their workforce in 2012. One report from that time period said that Samsung wanted to take their name off "Renault Samsung Motors" but Renault wouldn't let them.
- dba7dba 13y ago
  Sorry I wasn't clear about my statement. I meant in S Korea in general Samsung as a brand is considered a notch above Hyundai brand. I wasn't talking about car business. Just in general Samsung is considered more sophisticated and a brand notch above Hyundai.
cmelbye 13y ago
Samsung makes cars?
- dba7dba 13y ago
  Yes, but generally considered a flop. However I think Samsung is planning to reboot their car business with the new wave of electric cars. Why I think that? There were rumors that Tesla was talking to Samsung about Samsung making batteries for Tesla, mainly because Tesla wanted to increase supply AND diversify supplier (going from Pasasonic only to Panasonic/Samsung). Considering Samsung's reputation as a reliable supplier for quality/scale, it was a good idea. Even Apple considers Samsung as essential for their parts due to quality/scale. The rumors were reported for months. But nothing came out of it. And then we started hearing about Tesla building ITS OWN billion dollar battery factory in cooperation with Panasonic. So I started thinking WHAT happened? My guess is that Tesla wanted guarantee that Samsung would NOT get into electric car business in America (not unreasonable looking at apple/samsung), but Samsung didn't want to go along with it. I think Samsung is willing to lose the battery business with Tesla to have another crack at the new (electric) car business again. The Dell/samsung deal is a good example. Around 2000, Dell/Samsung signed a 10-year part deal. This was at the height of the RAM crisis (due to shortage prices were wildly fluctuation, if available at all). Samsung was up-and-coming RAM maker and Dell wanted to a secure supply of RAM. Dell signed deal with Samsung and Samsung agreed to meet parts demand from Dell (RAM, cddrive, monitor etc). It was a billion dollar, 10-year deal. Along with it, Samsung agreed to withdraw from PC business in US at the request of Dell (unknown to public at the time). This I think Samsung regretted later as Samsung was forgotten as a PC maker in US. In the decade of 2000-2010, I remember reading about good Samsung laptop reviews on notebookreview.com but you couldn't buy them in US. They were available only in S Korea/Asia/Europe/etc, but not in US. One of earlier very popular Dell laptop (everyone I knew had one) was a rebadged Samsung laptop actually. Basically Samsung was locked out of PC business in America and it cost them dearly in brand recognition in US, which Samsung apparently wants to avoid. In a way, Samsung not agreeing the possible Tesla's request is reasonable (I should admit I have no proof of it but circumstantial evidences support it). Samsung is ALREADY in car business (albeit it's a flop) and with the new generation of electric cars that will replace gas powered cars, Samsung made correct choice of not agreeing to Tesla's request.