How many auto manufacturers are going to turn over their dashboard to Apple?
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Former GM CEO on Apple Car: 'They Have No Idea What They're Getting Into'
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How many auto manufacturers are going to turn over their dashboard to Apple?
I have to agree with this. I'm sure Apple could make a good car and might even be marginally successful, but I don't think it would be in Apple interest to do so. I think people at Apple also think it is not in their interest to do so. Apple is all about high volume sales with yearly upgrade. The iPhone is so great for Apple because lots of people upgrade every year. The iPad is suffering from devices lasting longer and people not upgrading nearly as often.
I also have to wonder what an Apple car is going to bring, The iPod, iPhone, and iPad redefined their markets. I don't see how apple can do this in the car market. At best, Apple is working iDevice integration into an Apple dashboard, they might at best even be working on a driverless car. Now if Apple can get a driverless car certified in the near future, I take everything I said back.
I say Akerson doesn't know what he's talking about....
Apple Car with much better technologies... is not going to have such a small margin as GM would....
Although I do have to admit that entering a whole new industry is not simple... but it's time America has another car manufacturer. The existing ones obviously have no significant developments over the past decades.
Foreign companies like Honda, Toyota, Mercedes-Benz, BMW all got new features that really really catch our attention... Most importantly they make their cars a lot more fuel efficient. Ford/Pontiac/GM don't!
Apple, with its tendency to favor green energy, I believe will make a great effort ... I applaud them if they can make their first cars with battery range better than Tesla.
Apple Car with much better technologies... is not going to have such a small margin as GM would....
Although I do have to admit that entering a whole new industry is not simple... but it's time America has another car manufacturer. The existing ones obviously have no significant developments over the past decades.
Foreign companies like Honda, Toyota, Mercedes-Benz, BMW all got new features that really really catch our attention... Most importantly they make their cars a lot more fuel efficient. Ford/Pontiac/GM don't!
Apple, with its tendency to favor green energy, I believe will make a great effort ... I applaud them if they can make their first cars with battery range better than Tesla.
I have to say I agree with the GM CEO's sentiment.
The auto industry is different to other industries as there's a strong emotional and subjective aspect to it. There have been many technically good cars that haven't sold as they've been ugly or the brand was wrong.
Did you know Samsung makes cars? You'll laugh first because the branding is wrong. Then you'll Google it and laugh cos the cars are bland/ugly. Two hurdles that apple will have to cross before they even get to their USP (whatever that is)
I suspect that any car related project Apple is working on, will be a product they sell to car manufacturers, similar to 'Carplay'
The auto industry is different to other industries as there's a strong emotional and subjective aspect to it. There have been many technically good cars that haven't sold as they've been ugly or the brand was wrong.
Did you know Samsung makes cars? You'll laugh first because the branding is wrong. Then you'll Google it and laugh cos the cars are bland/ugly. Two hurdles that apple will have to cross before they even get to their USP (whatever that is)
I suspect that any car related project Apple is working on, will be a product they sell to car manufacturers, similar to 'Carplay'
Am I the only one that wanted to do a soviet russia switchup with that quote? Due to the lack of articles ... something like steel turn you into car? No it just doesn't make sense. Meh.
It does all come across as undeniably similar to the phone naysayers that have been requoted in here. I doubt they'll even be using steel for the cars, and I think they'll be shown to know exactly what they're doing. I just wish they'd make a touchscreen MacBook, so I could enjoy using their stuff again.
This is what you get from people who like shiny things and only think about Apple having money. The only thing helping Apple is their money and the hundreds of people's who are working on this car project if it is real. Apple knows nothing about Cars. Also 99% average people will probably never buy the actual Apple car because it will be too expensive. Time to layoff the Kool-Aid
.You realize that many of these foreign car manufactures actually stimulate the economy and provide more jobs than some of their US counterparts.
Here's an example: http://www.dailytech.com/Study+Toyota+is+More+American+Than+GM+Ford+Chrysler/article15618.htm
Well, anyone putting his quote in the same category as the ones above, really didn't understand what the guy actually said. He didn't say Apple couldn't do it. He said they should fully understand what car manufacturing entails. The quotes above are prognostications that Apple would fail. No correlation with what this guy said. So no, his quote won't live up to the others.
Of course it was Apple's fault. They gave a ton of money to a company that had no chance of doing what it claimed it could. If Apple can put GM an Toyota out of business and take over the auto industry, sapphire is kid stuff.
Whle I'm skeptical Apple is actually working on a car I'm also skeptical that car companies are going to turn over their dash to Apple. Even if Apple is just working on the dash, isn't it possible they'd build a prototype to test it all out?
Btw, phase 2 of Apple's new campus includes a 600,000 sq ft R&D facility.
http://forums.appleinsider.com/t/18...ans-r-d-facilities-big-enough-to-design-a-car
Coming from the former head of one of the most corrupt, mis-managed, clueless companies running today, that's hysterical. He did such a fantastic job himself, right?
Apple has BILLIONS in on-hand cash, and Government Motors needed BILLIONS just to stay in business after the bailout.'
This guy has the gull to comment on a rumor all while insulting Apple in the process? The fact that he's impacted enough to make any comment because Apple MIGHT be doing something regarding a car says exactly how much faith he has in his former place of business.
(That's precisely why I'll never buy a GM product again in my life. The only one worth anything is now gone because they were too stupid to even keep a good thing going when it was handed to them - they believed the S-Series needed to be turned into an Ion / Cobalt / G5... Morons. Seriously.)
Apple has BILLIONS in on-hand cash, and Government Motors needed BILLIONS just to stay in business after the bailout.'
This guy has the gull to comment on a rumor all while insulting Apple in the process? The fact that he's impacted enough to make any comment because Apple MIGHT be doing something regarding a car says exactly how much faith he has in his former place of business.
(That's precisely why I'll never buy a GM product again in my life. The only one worth anything is now gone because they were too stupid to even keep a good thing going when it was handed to them - they believed the S-Series needed to be turned into an Ion / Cobalt / G5... Morons. Seriously.)
Likely this is space to build a mini city or mall so they can test out all of their devices without fear of losing them in the real world
Someone somewhere will always have an issue with any map. There's no such thing as a perfect map. In fact, there's no such thing as a perfect [insert product here].
Saying that Apple has a problem here and there with their existing products and therefore shouldn't enter a new market is the worst argument one can make.
Apple poured money into a company that couldn't deliver tech. I mean who invests hundreds of million in a company, as you say, already going bankrupt? So what does that say about Apple's decision making in that instance?
If this rumor turned out to be true (which I highly doubt), what's to say they wouldn't make the same mistake again?
Certainly Apple is not going to build an ICE car. Your knowledge of how engines work and how to change oil will not make you a good fit for Apple's car team.
Electric cars use electric motors, not gas engines, and so there is no engine oil for you to change.
I do agree that it will take years. So?
It's simpler in some ways, as you don't have half a dozen different companies owning the roads you want to drive your car on that you have to negotiate with in every single country. The biggest hurdle Apple had with the iPhone was dealing with the telcos. If Apple can build a car to government standards, that car is immediately available.
That said, I don't see this happening.
What is a smartphone? It's basically a small computer. The leap between Macs to iPhones is relatively small compared to the leap between computers to cars.
For one thing, Apple doesn't produce a goodly chunk of their hardware inhouse. They make the design, then outsource it to the likes of Samsung, TSMC, and Foxxconn. Car manufacturers don't do that. They're almost entirely vertically integrated. They control everything from the engineering teams all the way to the assembly line, only getting raw materials from outside sources.
Do you think Volkswagon, BMW, Audi, or any of the other car manufacturers are going to being Apple's cars in their plants, in much the same way Samsung fabs Apple's processors? Probably not. They'll need to build their own infrastructure. One that'll be an expensive endeavor, which admittedly, Apple can afford, but the question is...
...will they be able to make that money back? Will their cars have as high a margin as their hardware? Will they move as many units? Will people buy Apple cars?
One of the things Steve Jobs said that I totally agree with is that Apple's success is mainly due to the fact they're a small company focused on a narrow range of products that are designed to be the best of their field. If Apple computers becomes Apple Motors and Hardware, they'll no longer be a small, focused company. They'll be a massive one.
And unlike their previous ventures, there very much is a good deal of Apple Is Doomed potential here. There gonna have to sink a lot of their amassed fortune into this, and there's no guarantee they'll get even a quarter of it back.
Not that I think they're gonna be making cars. I still think they'll be making computer kits for other manufacturers, but I might as well argue the topic.