Steve Jobs Passed on Building Apple Car in 2008 to Focus on iPhone

[Oblivious.Robot]

Mr. Jobs had his priorities straight.

Don't have anything against it, except I just have a feeling that we are rushing into this technology.

 

[Quu]

cuz no one would care?

No one would care? What planet are you on. Sites like this one will post any secret Apple info, even from people who didn't personally know Jobs or even worked there!

This Car thing has been swirling for what, two years now? He only speaks up about it now when it's a hot topic and everyone wants any morsel of information they can get. Very convenient.

 

[keysofanxiety]

What you are saying is not the truth but just an opinion. The Apple of 2006 was totally different from that of today. This is the truth: Apple in 2006 would not have the capital nor the industry clout to fund, coordinate and launch both a new smartphone AND a new car that is capable of competing within the market.

At the moment it seems they don't have the industry clout to fund, coordinate and launch services that work. Pretty much everything Eddy Cue touches turns to poop.

 

[SoApple]

Fadell could have been an Apple employee and an Apple branded auto could have been a reality today. The problem was Steve, for all his genius, wanted to have his thumb in every pie Apple made. APPLE could have done both, but STEVE could not. Steve was the best thing to happen to Apple but that is the truth.

Oh! So you knew Steve that well?

Cool! What was his favorite chocolate bar?


/s

 

[cheesyappleuser]

I am not against an Apple Car but would like Apple to focus more on hardware/software of computers.
Sometimes, I wonder if they are spreading themselves to thin among many different industries.

Well, I think the iPhone 6s is a good answer to that. Apart from the 16GB base storage I can't find anything wrong with it, really.

 

[Benjamin Frost]

Fadell:

'Uber is already a self-driving car. It just happens to have a person driving it.'

Schiller:

'The iPhone is the best phone on the market. It just happens to have 16GB storage.'

Apple:

'The iMac is the best desktop on the market. It just happens to have a 5400rpm drive in it.'

No wonder we're in a tech desert; the man with vision has died.

I miss Steve Jobs. Dreamt I was with him last night. It was amazing. We walked and talked. I can't remember the details. I never met him in real life, but he was engaging to converse with.

I'm sure Fadell is a brilliant man, but in that one, short interview, he lays bare the lack of focus endemic in the whole tech industry today. It reveals why Google made Google Glass, why Apple made the Apple Watch, and why the iPad has floundered since Jobs's death. Those three things are a result of lack of focus, because not enough questions were asked. You can only look forwards when you know where to look, what to look for and why.

For every Yes, there are a thousand Nos. An Apple car is one of the latter.

 

[Ventilatedbrain]

i'll be passing on the apple car for sure given the state of OS X and iOS... and the mess that was AW and music.

I like Apple Music. What's wrong with it ?

 

[JRobinsonJr]

I love how we know basically nothing about it, yet everyone somehow knows enough to say definitively whether or not they'll get it because of x, y, and z.

I concur with one exception. Given some of the recent deliveries it seems that Apple has either been losing some focus on the finer points or is spreading themselves too thin. The notion of an Apple Car is certainly intriguing but personally I would like to see them getting back to a technical leadership role where products/software are truly moonshots first.

 

[call-155]

Fadell's comparison of a car to iPhone is probably the worst comparison I've ever heard.

"If you look at an iPhone, it has all the same things. It even has a motor in it,"

Yes, the vibrating motor in iPhone decides the processing power, just like the motor in a car decides its horse power.

Why stop there? A rocket has a motor, battery, computer and mechanical structure. Let's skip the Apple Car and go straight to building a rocket to reach the Mars.

 

[2457282]

Will the Apple Car come with a 5400 RPM Hard drive in it?

C'mon, that comment belongs in every thread now.

Apple is moving away from moving parts and ports. Any car Apple builds will have only one port USB-C to charge the car. And will have only one door. if it has the 5400 HD then those will be the wheels, but will be replaced by hoverboard technology in v2.0. Instead of a steering wheel, you get siri. instead of a key you get a touchid. And the one window will not roll down.

 

[ck2875]

Here, I fixed the image.

 

[keysofanxiety]

No wonder we're in a tech desert; the man with vision has died.

The sad thing is, it won't even take much to sort it out. Everybody here points it out, so it must be obvious. The Retina iMac is a great product, except no SSDs by default which kills the performance. The iPhone 6S is extremely powerful, but crippled because of limited storage. It's just because there's a penny-pincher at the helm that the products are suffering because of it. We're not even talking much of a change either.

I'd bet my month's wage that Tim Cook doesn't have an iMac on his desk with a spinning platter for storage. Of course, he's not an engineer, or really even a power user (unless powering through emails counts these days), so he just sees plummeting $$$ where we see plummeting performance. Maybe one of the engineers should swap it out one day and see how he reacts.

"Jony?! Jooooonnnny!!" he'll cry, his Southern drawl eminating offensively from the phone receiver. "My iMac is no longer maaaagical, and glooooorious, and it's nhaaaaat a praaaaaduct that only Aaaaaple can do". I'd love to see his face when he realises just how hard he's been gimping the customers who are paying through the nose for this stuff.

Bloomin' bean counter, maybe he'll get the picture if he's on the receiving end of a crippled overpriced product. Maybe.

 

[Keane16]

At the moment it seems they don't have the industry clout to fund, coordinate and launch services that work. Pretty much everything Eddy Cue touches turns to poop.

Mine seem to work pretty well - perfect nope. But Apple has never been perfect (and any other tech company for that matter).

- My photos appear on my Mac when taken with my iOS devices.
- My iPhone backs up reliably to iCloud every night.
- I have and will continue to purchase music on the ITMS - never had an issue.
- The new Apple TV has worked flawlessly streaming from cloud services.

Etc.

People confuse perfection with working. Apple has always had issues. And as someone who uses Microsoft and Google equivalents I can say Apple are still the best overall for me - hardware, software, services. But as always users should pick and choose from each companies strong points.

Everybody here points it out, so it must be obvious. The Retina iMac is a great product, except no SSDs by default which kills the performance.

Having used one it doesn't - and for the user it's targetted for it works great.

The iPhone 6S is extremely powerful, but crippled because of limited storage.

Again, nope. There are many people (in fact data shows the majority) that get on by every day with 16GB. I read a report recently from a developer that said only 17% of 16Gb users had less than 1Gb free. Or to spin that around 83% have more than 1Gb free. Most users on 16GB are the mom and pop time users, the corporate users, the elderly, the tech phobics. They use their devices in a basic manner, they don't shoot video, they don't download 1GB games. The majority (looking at available data) are just dandy with their 16GB.

Sounds like your talking out of your pockets rather than actually running a business.

Don't get me wrong, I would love to not have to spring extra for an SSD. But that's my call - if I don't think it's value for money I won't buy it. Neither will the public. Customers don't like wasting their hard earned money. If the products and services were as bad as you make out they wouldn't sell. People would get frustrated and move on to a competitor. Not to mention customer satisfaction surveys would plummet - again no sign of that.

==============

Regarding the car I look forward to it. The big tech companies can certainly shake up the market. Will be interesting to see what they do. And what Tesla plus all the well established manufacturers do in response. Fun 10 years coming up for the auto mobile industry.

 

[melendezest]

It is interesting to know that Steve Jobs was thinking of a car way back then.

I really would have liked to know what he came up with.

Rest assured, that if Apple ever does execute this it will not be what Steve would've put out (because, you know, he's dead).

All that said, and given what we know is in Apple's DNA, I'm not sure I would ever want a car from them.

A self-driving car is unacceptable to me as a personal vehicle. I buy cars I enjoy to drive, and will never think of a vehicle as an appliance.

Not that there isn't merit in the concept: It would be cool to set the car on "autopilot" when you are tired or something (like in the movie I, Robot), but I would need the ability to completely shut that off at will.

The problem is that Apple has a track record of building products that remove control from the customer's hands and puts it in theirs.

Still, nobody thinks outside the box like Apple, even if I don't like (lately) where their thinking takes them.

Let's wait and see.

 

[iPadCary]

So Steve passed on that boondoggle of an idea of building a car, huh?
Then Cook's definately gonna do it.

 

[ghost187]

I guess making thermostats ain't floating his boat. Little envy or regret perhaps?

 

[Kabeyun]

Google car = yikes. Google's core business is monetizing you. Anyone who believes Google will have no interest in knowing where you go in your Google car is delusional.

Apple, on the other hand, goes to the mat for your privacy and security. Before the ignorant snipers attack, I encourage them to search for "apple privacy security rank" before they post drivel. An Apple car won't phone home unless you let it.

 

[melendezest]

The sad thing is, it won't even take much to sort it out. Everybody here points it out, so it must be obvious. The Retina iMac is a great product, except no SSDs by default which kills the performance. The iPhone 6S is extremely powerful, but crippled because of limited storage. It's just because there's a penny-pincher at the helm that the products are suffering because of it. We're not even talking much of a change either.

I'd bet my month's wage that Tim Cook doesn't have an iMac on his desk with a spinning platter for storage. Of course, he's not an engineer, or really even a power user (unless powering through emails counts these days), so he just sees plummeting $$$ where we see plummeting performance. Maybe one of the engineers should swap it out one day and see how he reacts.

"Jony?! Jooooonnnny!!" he'll cry, his Southern drawl eminating offensively from the phone receiver. "My iMac is no longer maaaagical, and glooooorious, and it's nhaaaaat a praaaaaduct that only Aaaaaple can do". I'd love to see his face when he realises just how hard he's been gimping the customers who are paying through the nose for this stuff.

Bloomin' bean counter, maybe he'll get the picture if he's on the receiving end of a crippled overpriced product. Maybe.

Hahaha. The problem is that he works off an iPad, as he's stated before. And apparently he likes doing it, so they're turning every device Apple makes into that.

If only Apple was less inflexible, we could have in addition to existing products updated & retina cMBPs that still take spinner HDs for those of us who need storage or want a desktop replacement, a 17" MBP, an updated 13" cMBP (that they still sell without updating 3-years later!!), Retina MBAs, 4-inch (uncrippled) iPhones, a thinner TB Display with USB 3/USB C, antiglare screens, a real Mac Pro, and most importantly, the ability to install whichever version of their OS we want on our devices.

There is just NO reason for these to not exist, even as BTO options.

 

[Andrei90]

"Apple faces growing competition from tech rivals such as Tesla and Google..."
Wouldn't Apple be the competition here? Tesla is already out and running and Apple is rumored to possibly maybe have a can in production in 2020.

whut? And with whom is Apple competing here? You need two to have a competition.

 

[thed0g]

I bet Steve Jobs talked about a lot of things that could be possible be built by Apple, but didn't happen. This is just convenient news for the recent rumors.

 

[efktd]

She's hottt.

 

[sunapple]

At least we now can take off one thing of the list "Things Tim Cook does wrong which Steve would not have done". Not that this list was accurate to begin with of course...

 

[megadon]

I don't see this happening. The costs of bringing a car to market is so expensive.

I think if apple was seriously considering this, they would have bought out tesla when it had a sub 15 billion market cap.

Even at today's price of around 30 ish billion, it's only 10 more
Billion than what Facebook paid for what's app.

I just don't see the margins in the car business to be enticing enough for Apple. But then again, being a car guy, I would love to see more competition in the ev market.

 

[DUCKofD3ATH]

I'm sure Fadell is a brilliant man, but in that one, short interview, he lays bare the lack of focus endemic in the whole tech industry today. It reveals why Google made Google Glass, why Apple made the Apple Watch, and why the iPad has floundered since Jobs's death. Those three things are a result of lack of focus, because not enough questions were asked. You can only look forwards when you know where to look, what to look for and why.

For every Yes, there are a thousand Nos. An Apple car is one of the latter.

In short, Apple's lost "that vision thing". Again.

But this time Steve's not waiting in the wings to set things right.

 

[TonyC28]

whut? And with whom is Apple competing here? You need two to have a competition.

I just meant that it's not like Apple already makes cars and is now facing competition from Tesla. I think it would be more appropriate to say that Tesla is facing competition from Apple. Splitting hairs, I know.