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Apple Recruiting Automotive Experts to Work in 'Top-Secret Research Lab'
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Their own inhouse integration team. Qualified Apple automotive engineers on site with the automakers own personnel in the design and production process to make sure systems integration and packaging is a smooth process and complies with the Apple technical specs and requirements. Just like F1 with independent teams and engine manufacturers, i.e. Red Bull & Renault, McLaren & Honda, Sauber & Ferrari, Williams & Mercedes...
I too feel this is going to be a push to take over the car OS market, not actually enter the automobile industry themselves. Apple isn't going to make the actual car.
Cost-effectiveness is a maybe depending on where you live. And no, they don't protect mother earth. Yes, you're no longer directly using gas/oil, but that electricity has to come from somewhere and most of it still comes from coal-powered factories. Your electric car is not protecting the planet - it's just alleviating the direct burden from you.
You realize that Samsung has already been in the automotive industry? And then Renault bout about 70% stake? This was back in 1998....
Ah, the president and vice president of the Perpetually Dissatisfied Society (PDS).
Have to go with this is just CarPlay integration. Probably first started as wireless device support and now Apple Watch. Other things like unlocking your car using iWatch and iPhone. Wireless Cadplay will be key in allowing more car manufacturers to put car play in their vehicles.
Apple actually has a number of amazing pieces of convergent technology, which would benefit the automotive industry greatly.
They have leading industry understanding of Mapping, Routefinding (Apple Maps, which despite being imperfect has made excellent progress). Excellent AI and control systems (Siri, world leader in interface design/HIGs etc). They have excellent experience of precision manufacturing (no further comment needed), and materials - from Lithium Ion batteries (travel range of electric vehicles) to Liquid Metal (now available as sheets, which would have solved many of the problems BMW encountered using Carbon Fibre in their I3). Not to mention leading media, and communication capabilities - entertainment, meetings during travel etc. Creating ability to use a car a near full-featured mobile office.
And then we consider their design aesthetic, as well as their broad appeal for leading technology and social reform (clean energy etc.)
I think they could be onto a winner if they reach market at the right time.
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Why buy something they are about to make obsolete with "the next big thing". Lol.
They have leading industry understanding of Mapping, Routefinding (Apple Maps, which despite being imperfect has made excellent progress). Excellent AI and control systems (Siri, world leader in interface design/HIGs etc). They have excellent experience of precision manufacturing (no further comment needed), and materials - from Lithium Ion batteries (travel range of electric vehicles) to Liquid Metal (now available as sheets, which would have solved many of the problems BMW encountered using Carbon Fibre in their I3). Not to mention leading media, and communication capabilities - entertainment, meetings during travel etc. Creating ability to use a car a near full-featured mobile office.
And then we consider their design aesthetic, as well as their broad appeal for leading technology and social reform (clean energy etc.)
I think they could be onto a winner if they reach market at the right time.
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Why buy something they are about to make obsolete with "the next big thing". Lol.
I can tell you as a Tesla Model S owner that Apple has their work cut out for them if they decide to get into the car business. Tesla has done a magnificent job designing and engineering what many consider to be the best car ever made (and I agree) and it's only their second car...
People have been begging Apple to make a car for years and along comes Tesla and basically took what Apple does best and applied it to the car business and totally disrupted it just like Apple does in the computer business. If they want to get into the waters then the more the merrier!!
People have been begging Apple to make a car for years and along comes Tesla and basically took what Apple does best and applied it to the car business and totally disrupted it just like Apple does in the computer business. If they want to get into the waters then the more the merrier!!
This is just to keep jony, marc and eddie happy
They don't have Marc Newson on contract just for watches...
I'm skeptical, but assuming it is an electric vehicle, it would be in a class like the Prius Hybrid, premium midsize car, but not luxury, and marketed through the stores.
There isn't any point in building a limited edition car as it wouldn't exploit Apple's supply chain expertise, and low volumes would be nothing but halo products.
Then again, maybe Apple will only build halo vehicles, that eddie, jony, and marc would like.
They don't have Marc Newson on contract just for watches...
I'm skeptical, but assuming it is an electric vehicle, it would be in a class like the Prius Hybrid, premium midsize car, but not luxury, and marketed through the stores.
There isn't any point in building a limited edition car as it wouldn't exploit Apple's supply chain expertise, and low volumes would be nothing but halo products.
Then again, maybe Apple will only build halo vehicles, that eddie, jony, and marc would like.
If they were only interested in that, than they wouldn't have hired the Mercedes guy but some much cheaper people from Siemens VDO. Go look up that company.
Electric power is more efficient than heat engines.That in itself is reason enough to switch to electric. That Apple could build solar out to compensate for any electric vehicles that they would produce is a given.
Hence, your premise would be flawed from the start.
Fixed that for you
One problem though.
How do we know that driving an electric car ensures a cleaner Earth? That is the biggest problem with electric cars right now, not enough of the power used to charge them is clean and renewable. If all the cars in the world were magically turned into electric versions overnight tonight, the increase in global electric power capacity required to power them all not only doesn't actually exist, but if it did and was generated using power sources in the same ratio as today, it would release a virtually equivalent amount of green house gases and cause equally as much pollution as the current situation of burning fossil fuels in internal combustion engines.
Also, if everyone was driving eletric cars the cost of electricity would rise substantially as well, because of the increased demand, and the need to expand supply to meet it. This would have a knock in effect, making it more expensive to power your household as well - say hello to skyrocketing utility bills!
I mean we already have several areas of the US having brown-outs. The power grid is already in need of upgrading and expanding, and is struggling to meet the population's ever increasing demand for energy.
Nope, in my opinion, as humble as it is, I believe that the electric car isn't the answer. The answer is an upgrade of the global power grid in terms of not only capacity and infrastructure but also of power source.
If you have coal, gas and nuclear power generating the lion's share of your electricity, what's the point of electric cars?
Viable Solar, Wind, Tidal, Water and Geothermal power generation technologies need to be developed and built out on a global scale and implemented into the grid in combination with a move to electric powered transportation, otherwise it is literally pointless.
Not that I don't want a Tesla Model X more than badly, and not that I don't claim I wouldn't feel better about myself owning one, over say, an Audi Q7 or something, but I also don't think I would disillusion myself into thinking I am saving the world by driving an electric car.
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QNX has 50% of the car OS market, generating around 100 million in revenue (which is not limited to cars), representing 2% of BlackBerry's sales.
There, fixed that for you.
This is a rumor.
There is NO evidence that Apple is taking on way too many product lines. Watch is the only new one. If they came out with this in 5-10 years, it would not spread them too thin either.
My guess is that Apple is working on battery technology for EV cars.
Around 80% of Apple's revenue comes from battery-dependent products. It is therefore strongly in their interests to expand into fields that will allow them to fund next-gen battery research.
Rather than building cars, I can see Apple partnering with car manufacturers to provide batteries for EV's. If Apple does produce a car, my bet is that it would be a high-end boutique vehicle to showcase their battery tech.
But Apple doesn't have the channels in place to to sell and support cars to the mass public. A car for the masses is not something they could announce as a "Oh, and one more thing..."
Around 80% of Apple's revenue comes from battery-dependent products. It is therefore strongly in their interests to expand into fields that will allow them to fund next-gen battery research.
Rather than building cars, I can see Apple partnering with car manufacturers to provide batteries for EV's. If Apple does produce a car, my bet is that it would be a high-end boutique vehicle to showcase their battery tech.
But Apple doesn't have the channels in place to to sell and support cars to the mass public. A car for the masses is not something they could announce as a "Oh, and one more thing..."
So really wouldn't move the needle at all. Of course that doesn't mean Apple isn't working on it. I doub't Pay is a big money maker. But it does increase the stickiness of iPhones.
No they don't. Simply the rumor is enough for Samsung.
Apple has enough cash to buy a few different existing manufacturers.
I doubt they do, but if they do this could all be a ploy to strong arm them into a lower price. Apple has the means. "Sell to us or we'll crush your business" is a pretty decent tactic.