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I still don't buy Apple is going to make a completely in-house EV. Historically, Apple only innovates in market categories in which the incumbents suck (usually

by swish41 12y ago

I still don't buy Apple is going to make a completely in-house EV. Historically, Apple only innovates in market categories in which the incumbents suck (usually through an order of magnitude improvement in the UI/UX). But Tesla doesn't suck...it's done a pretty damn good job. A partnership with Tesla makes more sense.

melling 12y ago
Watches? You could argue that there were better MP3 players at the time of the iPod too. Historically speaking you're only looking back a decade.
- wodenokoto 12y ago
  I don't think you could argue there were better MP3 players. About watches, it depends on whether we are considering watches as jewelry (at which they don't suck at all) or as information delivery devices (at which they only deliver one type of information, which is typically readily available everywhere) My Nokia 3110 was great at making phone calls and quite good at SMS'ing, so in that sense they didn't need to be upgraded. In the same vain we can say that we don't need watches that are better at keeping time. But cellphones of the late 90's sucked at a lot of things that are nice to have in your packet, such as games, news and reading. So the question is, are there a lot of things other than time that are nice to have on your wrist? If yes, then the market fit Apple perfectly.
coralreef 12y ago
I agree. I think the car project is just a way to recruit smart people. What they really want a technical edge in is batteries. Apple pushes design boundaries, making everything thinner and thinner every year. I bet batteries is the biggest design constraint they face in all their products.
snowwrestler 12y ago
Tesla is a teeny tiny portion of the car industry. If Apple is thinking about incumbents, they are morel likely thinking: BMW, Mercedes, Audi, Lexus, etc. Maybe even Ford, GM, Toyota, Volkswagen, etc. As those cars become more and more computerized, it's becoming clear: those companies absolutely suck at software and user interfaces. The interior of most cars today is an absolute chaos of buttons, screens, levers, dials, and indicators. It's like a wrap-around version of this: http://www.blogcdn.com/www.engadget.com/media/2007/01/dsc_0172.jpg http://www.blogcdn.com/www.engadget.com/media/2007/01/dsc_01... Apple has something that Tesla does not: gigantic piles of capital. Apple has around $230 billion in cash, which is more than the annual gross revenue of Ford or GM last year. Apple is ready to scale from day 1. Whereas Tesla is following a careful growth strategy, using each model's sales to fund the R&D on the next.
- toomuchtodo 12y ago
  >Apple has something that Tesla does not: gigantic piles of capital. Apple has around $230 billion in cash, which is more than the annual gross revenue of Ford or GM last year. Apple is ready to scale from day 1. Whereas Tesla is following a careful growth strategy, using each model's sales to fund the R&D on the next. I don't care if you have a trillion dollars, you can only tool up manufacturing capacity so quickly. "Apple is ready to scale from day 1" is laughable. Cars are not iPhones you can outsource to Foxconn for production.
  - snowwrestler 12y ago
    I meant financially ready. Tesla's growth rate is limited by their available capital; Apple will not face this particular limitation.
    - jti107 12y ago
      actually they are limited by battery supply...hence they want to build their own. also use scale to drive down the battery cost

by swish41 12y ago

melling 12y ago

Watches? You could argue that there were better MP3 players at the time of the iPod too. Historically speaking you're only looking back a decade.

wodenokoto 12y ago
I don't think you could argue there were better MP3 players. About watches, it depends on whether we are considering watches as jewelry (at which they don't suck at all) or as information delivery devices (at which they only deliver one type of information, which is typically readily available everywhere) My Nokia 3110 was great at making phone calls and quite good at SMS'ing, so in that sense they didn't need to be upgraded. In the same vain we can say that we don't need watches that are better at keeping time. But cellphones of the late 90's sucked at a lot of things that are nice to have in your packet, such as games, news and reading. So the question is, are there a lot of things other than time that are nice to have on your wrist? If yes, then the market fit Apple perfectly.

coralreef 12y ago

I agree. I think the car project is just a way to recruit smart people. What they really want a technical edge in is batteries. Apple pushes design boundaries, making everything thinner and thinner every year. I bet batteries is the biggest design constraint they face in all their products.

snowwrestler 12y ago

Tesla is a teeny tiny portion of the car industry. If Apple is thinking about incumbents, they are morel likely thinking: BMW, Mercedes, Audi, Lexus, etc. Maybe even Ford, GM, Toyota, Volkswagen, etc. As those cars become more and more computerized, it's becoming clear: those companies absolutely suck at software and user interfaces. The interior of most cars today is an absolute chaos of buttons, screens, levers, dials, and indicators. It's like a wrap-around version of this: http://www.blogcdn.com/www.engadget.com/media/2007/01/dsc_0172.jpg http://www.blogcdn.com/www.engadget.com/media/2007/01/dsc_01... Apple has something that Tesla does not: gigantic piles of capital. Apple has around $230 billion in cash, which is more than the annual gross revenue of Ford or GM last year. Apple is ready to scale from day 1. Whereas Tesla is following a careful growth strategy, using each model's sales to fund the R&D on the next.

toomuchtodo 12y ago
>Apple has something that Tesla does not: gigantic piles of capital. Apple has around $230 billion in cash, which is more than the annual gross revenue of Ford or GM last year. Apple is ready to scale from day 1. Whereas Tesla is following a careful growth strategy, using each model's sales to fund the R&D on the next. I don't care if you have a trillion dollars, you can only tool up manufacturing capacity so quickly. "Apple is ready to scale from day 1" is laughable. Cars are not iPhones you can outsource to Foxconn for production.
- snowwrestler 12y ago
  I meant financially ready. Tesla's growth rate is limited by their available capital; Apple will not face this particular limitation.
  - jti107 12y ago
    actually they are limited by battery supply...hence they want to build their own. also use scale to drive down the battery cost