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I would love an EV Apple Car. They’ll probably be Tesla’s biggest competitor. But the Apple Car won’t be available for several more years, so I’ll probably get a Tesla first.
 
I can see what the launch event is gonna look like in 2027. Apple is going to show all the most iconic products they have released: Apple I > Macintosh > PowerBook > iMac G3 > iPod > iPhone > iPad > Apple Watch > Apple VR
Tim says auto pilot to Steve Jobs theatre
Apple Car drives onto stage
This is Apple Car
I’m so proud of the Team
This is the ultimate mobile experience
With more than a decade of intense work, Apple Car is here to take you anywhere your heart desires
With features such as Autopilot, 5G and iPhone, we make driving easy, safe and fast

Now to tell you more about Apple Car, I would like welcome Candy Fuller, VP of Apple Car Development

Thanks Tim! Apple Car puts you in control, it can take you wear you want to go, drop you off and go back to your home to park itself or find a parking spot for you.
 
IMHO, I think this could be Cook's Folly. Apparently their talks with other manufacturers has failed and now they're going to try and go on their own.
As much as I love Apple and have been embedded in their ecosystem for years, I have found that I no longer jump on the latest and greatest anymore. As far as I can see, there are still too many inconsistencies in their software. It's somewhat acceptable ( but not totally) to have your iPhone, iMac, iPad shut down or crash. Just not reasonable or acceptable for a car.
Not sure why Apple din't choose Magna Steyr as they have a solid background in automotive engineering. About the only reason I can think of is that Cook put on his bean counter hat and din't like the margins the others offered. From what I remember from working in the auto industry, that margins aren't all that great. As others have mentioned, I think Apple is going way outside their core business and that, to me, is a potential for failure.
 
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Go it alone is not always the best plan.

The Wise one listens to advice from others.

I can already tell how this is gonna go. A Failure.

Another attempt to save money and make your own parts.

Just like ditching INTEL Processors for the Mac for ARM. Energy saver CHIP.

INTEL will catch up and pass. The V8 Intel vs the APPLE 4 Cylinder.
 
Yeah except the Japanese were already building cars.

Don't forget, Apple doesn't manufacture anything themselves. With a car it might have to be different.
This is what makes it easier for Apple.

They can pick the best proposition from the smorgasbord of the independent supply and assembly base.

Apple is a designer and integrator with vertical integration limited to strategic components.

Traditional OEM’s have been trying to move in Apple’s direction since the 1970’s, shedding captive operations and outsourcing (note: this may be but is not necessarily the same as offshoring) but still have to to work with the components made by their in-house suppliers (which may not be cost or design competitive).

We can see how far Tesla came on shoestring budgets. Apple doesn’t have that limitation, they can easily pay premiums for parallel path or accelerated work.

I think the analyst Job 1 dates are pessimistic. If Apple decides to enter this business and has the desire to do so, there’s more than enough competent resources available to pull ahead, to 2024, the only question is how soon, how much it and how much they want to spend.
 
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How will Apple resolve the continuing chip shortages that are plaguing other car companies?
They're not talking about bringing it to production until 2024 at the earliest, so today's chip shortages should have been long since resolved by then.

Plus Apple is probably the world's second largest buyer of chips, behind only Samsung... they probably won't have anywhere near as much an issue finding chips as an automaker. Apple can just redirect chips that were originally meant for cheap iPhones to go into cars instead.
 
Go it alone is not always the best plan.

The Wise one listens to advice from others.

I can already tell how this is gonna go. A Failure.

Another attempt to save money and make your own parts.

Just like ditching INTEL Processors for the Mac for ARM. Energy saver CHIP.

INTEL will catch up and pass. The V8 Intel vs the APPLE 4 Cylinder.
Obvious Intel vested interest is obvious.
 
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Yeah except the iPhone is a small electronic device. a vehicle to be built from ground up doesn't just happen overnight.

Just look at Tesla, how long it's taken them to get their body manufacturing processes, because they didn't have the expertise of doing so. And it's still not to the level of the major players.

I watched a video a few years ago of a former auto executive explaining how much more primitive and expensive Tesla's body assembly was - this was on the Model S, so things might have improved since that's a very old platform.
You think the iPhone is just a small device that happened overnight?
Or that apple hasn’t been working on the car for the better part of a decade now already?

Just because most car manufacturers do a poor job of making great cars doesn’t mean making a great car is some impossible thing. Often it takes outsiders to step in see what’s really possible and change things for the better.
 
I still think this is an odd move by Apple. The car industry has much lower margins, huge Capex, huge liability, and like others have said, building safe reliable desirable cars is extremely difficult. While I think there is space for innovation, it's a lot more limited than Apple's normal areas. I am definitely interested to see what they do given how ingrained I am in their ecosystem but it'll have to be impressive to usurp the likes of Tesla and Rivian.

I think a smart thing would've been to partner with certain car manufacturer to better integrate Apple's ecosystem with the cars built in infotainment, like CarPlay but comes with the car. My issue with CarPlay is it's a separate layer and I'd like to see it talking with the rest of the cars systems, like Apple Maps providing information to the HUD.
 
"Why they would want to go down this car path and what they think they could add is beyond me."

For the same reason Apple decided to get into the cellular handset market when that was OWNED by Motorola, Ericsson, and Nokia - the giants in cellular telecom, collectively known as MEN in that industry.

I remember the same pushback from tech forum "experts" that we're seeing here today. And all the reasons why Apple would fail in that market.

Thank god for American companies willing to take chances rather than sitting in comfortable stasis.

Except that isn’t the case here. A smartphone was pretty obvious for apple moving forward. Great fit. Nobrainer. This car rumor? It’s not apple at all. Money pit. Tim’s big fail.
 
Apple will be a very small part of the auto market for the first few years. They will sell a very limited set of options, at the very high end of whatever market segment they enter into. They will sell enough, but not many, units at first, to those who want the status, the prestige, and the interest of owning one of Apple's first cars. In addition, the Apple car will be able to do some things better, easier, and cooler than other cars on the market (e.g. using their proprietary battery technology and development of likely very efficient EV motors). Slowly, over the course of several years, they will diversify, offer new models, at different market segment points, foregoing the lower end of the market, to maintain large margins at fewer sales. This is what they did with the Mac, the iPhone, the iPad, the Apple Watch. Does anyone else remember "gold plated" Apple Watches that first year? Also, Apple (Tim Cook's specialty) has demonstrated that it has the capacity to develop incredibly tight manufacturing processes and supply chain and inventory logistics. This is essential to auto manufacturing success, and why Tesla has never made a profit on making cars (all of its profits are for selling carbon footprint credits to other companies). Apple will succeed, and might even be a dominant player by 2035. Remember, there are going to be massive tax incentives to move to EVs in the next few years. Infrastructure for EVs will also ramp up quickly, matching gas stations in the not-too distant future.

Apple's obligations to its shareholders almost dictates its attempt to get into the auto industry. With apple so huge in the market segments it currently dominates, real growth options are pretty limited. Cars are "the next big thing" and they will be a natural extension of its overall ecosystem, becoming an integral part of how you use technology from when you get up in the morning to when you go to sleep at night, integrated with your communications technology, home technology, etc. It is also very possible that Apple will create a new way of "selling" cars, by developing fleets that it owns and maintains, with users leasing cars as needed, thereby lowering per use cost. I am guessing auto ownership will be far less common in twenty years. Think Apple's version of an Uber that has no driver.

Also, keep in mind that, with EV design, there is no reason they need to look at all like they look like now. No need for a hood, etc. No need to make them all capable of fitting at least two, mostly five or six, and often 7 or more passengers. I can see an Apple car designed for a single person, or two people, very small, very large range, or very inexpensive, compared to the competition. Apple thinks outside the box, designs and builds outside the box. I can't wait to see what Apple comes up with, at first, but most especially, down the road, once it is in the market. I think Tesla will end up being the Blackberry of "Smart Cars," and when Apple, and maybe Google or others, get into this market, we will have to completely rethink what an automobile is.
 
If you believe from 2016 Apple were only working on self-driving software regarding their car and not hardware then I have a bridge to sell you. That part of this story is most certainly untrue. Apple dropped some pebbles on the pond and lazy journalists after clicks ran with it.

They may very well have decided to mass produce vehicles themselves. Just hire and have hired the right and capable people. Rivian did. Apple at this point likely have at least a couple thousand car engineers working with them. The stories they let go hundreds of them I never believed. They were buying themselves time. Stop with the lazy journalism.
 
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Fantastic now all Apple needs to do is build those factories all over the world in less than two years...
Nobody said two years. And nobody said new factories have to be built. But even so, two years is possible but expensive. It’s not like nobody has never built a modern plant before.
 
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We can see how far Tesla came on shoestring budgets. Apple doesn’t have that limitation, they can easily pay premiums for parallel path or accelerated work.

Spot on. And unlike Tesla, Apple doesn't need to rely on $5 billion in US government subsidies.
 
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The reports indicated they didn’t enter the television business due to low margins and the commodity nature of the market. How is the auto industry really that much different? Who is the target market for this rumored apple car? And who is willing to jump into a new car by a company with no meaningful automotive experience? I like my apple devices and have had many of them over the years but I’m just not seeing the logic in this auto industry push.
 
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Except that isn’t the case here. A smartphone was pretty obvious for apple moving forward. Great fit. Nobrainer. This car rumor? It’s not apple at all. Money pit. Tim’s big fail.

Now that's a real knee-slapper! A no-brainer, even! Bet you've never worked in that industry.

Please, not so early in the morning when I'm drinking milk. Not pretty.
 
Apple is the only one that has no big issues with that because Apple bought 75% of TSMC manufacture capacity until 2024 for now (probably they will make a new deal by then to expand that)
Thats why the other companies have the real issues
As a TSMC stock holder, exactly. When they talk about chip shortages and increasing prices it's not because of their main SoC's. Apple bought and paid for those years in the future. Everyone else is fighting over the scraps. TSMC has relied on Apple's heavy upfront investment in them to spearhead the newest nodes, then Apple gets the lion's share of the new process.
 
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More and more, this looks like Apple Car is going to go the way of AirPower.
AirPower was foiled by tech limitations.

Even though BEV and AV are cutting edge, they are not entire new or mysterious. Apple has access to essentially every that every other OEM does. If they integrate it better, run a tight MP&L operation and put it in a sexy apple design it will sell.
 
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You think the iPhone is just a small device that happened overnight?
Or that apple hasn’t been working on the car for the better part of a decade now already?

Just because most car manufacturers do a poor job of making great cars doesn’t mean making a great car is some impossible thing. Often it takes outsiders to step in see what’s really possible and change things for the better.
Dude, don't compare the complexity of the first iPhone, to what the first Apple Car would be.

Given Apple secrecy, developing this thing isnt exactly going to be a piece of cake once they start hitting prototypes which they will have to test on public roads at some point - just like every other manufacturer does. Buying some former automotive proving ground isnt a replacement for that.
 
Oh dear. What would Steve say about this? Another HomePod … but this time with billions in investement?

They have things closer their ethos that need disrupting. What about making coming up with 50% market share for the Mac? What about making the iPad / iPad OS really compelling productivity tool for the masses? What about really good smarglasses? The glasses industry has not innovated in a century.

Humm.
 
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