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Hundreds of Apple Employees Working On Apple-Branded Electric Vehicle
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Look at Yamaha. They make motorcycles, grand pianos, studio/consumer electronics, outboard boat engines, Steinberg software/hardware, orchestral band instruments, among many others, and makes them all to a high level of quality. Each division has carried the company at times. And Apple could do it even better. That's the way they operate.
My best guess is they are strictly developing automotive software. Not just autopilot but I would imagine control interfaces. Teslas' center stack is essentially a 17" iPad. I also have s guess that maybe Tesla employees may have something to do with battery development.
I would be highly surprised if Apple got into the business of building cars. Going from making computers to the iPhone and revolutionizing the music industry all at least stay within the niche of consumer electronics. I'd be more likely to believe they start making kitchen appliances
On the contrary, Apple does love to be seen as the ones who revolutionize industries. Since there's a big opportunity for advancing tech in cars and developing electric vehicles that isn't really competitive at the moment. Particularly in the luxury department.
I highly doubt that Apple would build a car from the ground up despite having plenty of financial resources. It seems more likely to me they would buy an existing company for the experience of people and designs proven to work. Car development goes through an unbelievable amount of testing. If we start reading Apple is buying dead brands like Fiskar we know something is definitely up.
If they do release a car it will not be anything the average buying could afford I'm sure. At least not for a long time. But you need not worry because The Windows Zune Car will be available.
I would be highly surprised if Apple got into the business of building cars. Going from making computers to the iPhone and revolutionizing the music industry all at least stay within the niche of consumer electronics. I'd be more likely to believe they start making kitchen appliances
On the contrary, Apple does love to be seen as the ones who revolutionize industries. Since there's a big opportunity for advancing tech in cars and developing electric vehicles that isn't really competitive at the moment. Particularly in the luxury department.
I highly doubt that Apple would build a car from the ground up despite having plenty of financial resources. It seems more likely to me they would buy an existing company for the experience of people and designs proven to work. Car development goes through an unbelievable amount of testing. If we start reading Apple is buying dead brands like Fiskar we know something is definitely up.
If they do release a car it will not be anything the average buying could afford I'm sure. At least not for a long time. But you need not worry because The Windows Zune Car will be available.
Margins on high end cars are pretty high. That's on reason Apple is interested in cars. Apple has to find areas were a lot of people buy products with high margins. There are not that many of these around that produce big cash flows. High to mid high end cars are one of them. Probably 50% of the industry's profits are in 50K and up cars, despite there being a lot less car sold (doesn't this sound like a segment Apple would be interested in?).
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It won't be cheaper for sure, but Apple would undoubtably make more profits (that's the hallmark of an Apple operation these days, 30-40% profit).
I haven't seen a model by model breakdown of profits, but most major auto makers are somewhere in the 8-12% profit range. This is the overall profit for the company. BMW is in the 11% range, Mercedes near 8% and Audi near 10%.
Here's a link for a bit of info.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/10/23/us-daimler-results-idUSKCN0IC0JW20141023
what do you mean support jailbreak? it's not like jailbreak is supported on iPhone ever.
Hackers can try to hack whatever they want.
However, the government may make jailbreaking cars illegal with harsh punishment since it puts people's lives in danger.
Still, most of those companies are in the 100 most valuable companies in the world (with Apple), so there's much money to be made there. Unless Apple goes into oil and gas or starts a bank, that's one way of Apple of making money.
Porsche seemingly has the best profits at 18%.
There is an enormous investment to make those profits. Volkswagen owns Porsche and VW's net profits are in the 10% range. And these companies have been in business for over 70 years. Some of the American makers have been in business for over 100 years.
Unless Apple is going to custom build a few hundred cars a year, it is an enormous undertaking for a much smaller return on their investment than they currently have. Ferrari sells 7,000 cars a year, Porsche about 160,000, Mercedes over 300,000, BMW 150,000. Toyota, GM, Ford, over 10 million. How many cars is Apple going to sell? How long would it take to recoup their investment? Are they going to sell high end cars for 100K? How many fanboys are gong to buy the car just because Apple makes it? There is a lot of competition out there.
I might be crazy, but the more I think about this the more it makes sense:
* Apple designs the interior including the full user experience.
* A company like Magna Steyr (I think they make BMW's Mini Coopers and Mercedes' G-class) provides the expertise to design and manufacture it. Obviously Apple gets deeply involved in this as well
* Apple maybe sells it in partnership with an existing company's deanship network. (Shoot, they could open a lone dealership in any state in the country and people would probable make a pilgrimage there to buy as many as Apple could make.)
* Has a couple of killer features -- electric is one -- plus an overall UX designed by Apple. Probably also turns a couple of conventions on their ears.
And...
* Everyone goes absolutely nuts (Either in favor of it, or against it, or admiring it or hating it or whatever)
* Apple designs the interior including the full user experience.
* A company like Magna Steyr (I think they make BMW's Mini Coopers and Mercedes' G-class) provides the expertise to design and manufacture it. Obviously Apple gets deeply involved in this as well
* Apple maybe sells it in partnership with an existing company's deanship network. (Shoot, they could open a lone dealership in any state in the country and people would probable make a pilgrimage there to buy as many as Apple could make.)
* Has a couple of killer features -- electric is one -- plus an overall UX designed by Apple. Probably also turns a couple of conventions on their ears.
And...
* Everyone goes absolutely nuts (Either in favor of it, or against it, or admiring it or hating it or whatever)
Then you don't get Tesla. It performs like a Ferrari and it's electric. That's a pretty huge accomplishment. Yea they are expensive. And they are nowhere near as beautiful as a Ferrari or Lamborghini. But they are a work of art in their own way. Their tech is amazing. In a few years they will have their new battery factory cranking out batteries in the US and they expect to offer a car around $35,000.
I'm seriously considering a Model X (all wheel drive SUV model, looks a bit like the Cayenne). I need four wheel drive where I live. I really don't want to buy another gas powered vehicle. Also, Tesla gives owners free charging for life at all of their Superchargers. You can now drive your Tesla across the entire United States and charge for free the entire trip.
Apple getting into the car business seems absurd. Whatever the truth, I'm glad to see them doing more R&D outside of their core businesses though.
There's a simple reply to your whole argument: iPhone 2007 (that is vs all the long time handset makers that scoffed at it.
I'm not saying Apple will make a car. But if they are determined to do it, they will do it and kick some ass.
Heh... is that why you think people buy Apple products?
And there's a lot of competition in all of Apple's markets.
This idea is really out there. But it won't be the level of competition that stops Apple, and their business plan won't rely on fanboys to succeed.
That depends on which margin we're talking about, gross margin vs operating profit. Even Apple doesn't make 40% operating profit. For example in the fiscal year 2014, it looks like Apple came very close to, but still didn't even hit 30% operating margin. http://www.wikinvest.com/stock/Apple_(AAPL)/Data/Operating_Margin/2014
On the other hand, if we're strictly talking about gross margin that's doable. Luxury vehicles do carry 30% gross margin. For instance Porsche's gross margin is right around 30%. You can see it from their annual report. http://www.volkswagenag.com/content...binarystorageitem/file/Porsche-Download-e.pdf
That depends on which margin we're talking about, gross margin vs operating profit. Even Apple doesn't make 40% operating profit. For example in the fiscal year 2014, it looks like Apple came very close to, but still came under 30% operating margin, let alone 40%. http://www.wikinvest.com/stock/Apple_(AAPL)/Data/Operating_Margin/2014
On the other hand, if we're strictly talking about gross margin that's doable. Luxury vehicles do carry 30% gross margin. For instance Porsche's gross margin is right around 30%. You can see it from their annual report. http://www.volkswagenag.com/content...binarystorageitem/file/Porsche-Download-e.pdf
All possible speculations but I wonder if there's more to it. I'd imagine they are working on some sort of partnership or different selling arrangements instead of trying to complete against the incumbents directly.
For some, it's just unacceptable people actually like Apple products. They cannot accept that so they usually either try to spin it as fanboy, Apple marketing, media conspiracy, peer pressure, fad, irrational buyers, shiny new toy syndrome, Steve Jobs' zombie reality distortion field, or any number of combinations. But they will rarely acknowledge it's because the products are actually good. (And they'll directly or passive aggressively post at Macrumors
)
I do think that there are people who buy Apple products because of brand recognition. I do think some people bought the 3 generation old 4S just because it was an iPhone. I think that there will be plenty of people who will buy the Apple Watch site unseen. Are all Apple customers fanboys? Of course not. But this is just my opinion and in the realm of things it means nothing.
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For some, it's just unacceptable people actually like Apple products. They cannot accept that so they usually either try to spin it as fanboy, Apple marketing, media conspiracy, peer pressure, fad, irrational buyers, shiny new toy syndrome, Steve Jobs' zombie reality distortion field, or any number of combinations. But they will rarely acknowledge it's because the products are actually good. (And they'll directly or passive aggressively post at Macrumors
And some would buy a pet rock if it had an Apple logo on it. It works both ways. Some are at the opposite extreme of what you posted.
