The delusion and hypocrisy of this antiquated dinosaur is glorious.
"Apple should stay out of fields with such low profit margins."
There's only low profit margins for you because your monopoly privilege and sloven acquiescence to labor union thuggery has awarded you no incentive to be profitable or even engage in the most basic innovation, competition, or customer service.
"They'd better think carefully if they want to get into the hard-core manufacturing,' he said of Apple. 'We take steel, raw steel, and turn it into car. They have no idea what they're getting into if they get into that.'"
Again, see my original comments. This is presupposition that because you've been doing it for a century, and poorly at that, no one else can. This is the basest of arrogance of the monopolist.
I will credit him with this:
"In an interview with Bloomberg, Akerson said that Apple may be underestimating the difficulty of operating in the car business, as it's hard to navigate regulatory and safety requirements. 'A lot of people who don't ever operate in it don't understand and have a tendency to underestimate.'"
This is very true; the state has made car manufacturing a nightmare for entrepreneur and innovators. Because of the excess of regulation, or am I repeating myself, cars have essentially become homogenized. Features are basically the same across all manufacturers, save for packaging. Providing the customer what they want ended decades ago. Federal law now forces manufacturers to give customers what the state says they need.
What he's also saying, very coyly, is that if Apple or whoever gets too good, or figures out a way to beat the system, the dinosaurs will use their lobbyists to sic the state on them. Look what's happening to Telsa. Whilst I oppose their b.s. environmentalist mantra on principle, I soundly applaud them for going after the entrenched dealership scam. I'm reminded of what some corrupt bureaucrat in New Jersey said a while back, "buying a car isn't like buying an iPad." Heh. Truer words have never been spoken.
Overall, a last gasp by a dying, increasingly irrelevant fat cat. Don't get me wrong; this venture by Apple is due to the manipulated economy and the buckets of phoney money sloshing around. But kudos for jumping feet first into the rapids. You're over the mark when you start taking shrapnel.
