The iCar
CEO Tim Cook and the company he runs, Apple (AAPL), are widely known as the iPhone company, but he wants to change that.
Cook wants to take over your car because the iPhone business is saturating at an alarming speed.
So what’s his plan for the iCar?
Apparently, he doesn’t want Apple to produce the physical car, but he wants access to the system that controls the car.
By doing this, Cook saves time by avoiding the physical design process of the metal, suspension, engine, and curves during inflationary times.
Cook feels that it’s more cost-effective to play God from a remote office in California.
Why not?
The manufacturing part is a serious risk these days with bottlenecked supply chains and rising input prices.
This leads me to say, there will likely be no Apple-branded car, even though all the Apple fanatics have been waiting for years for this.
Apple wants the car to be made by the car companies.
If Apple and Cook can pull this off, this would most likely become Cook’s legacy at Apple after he steps down in the future.
Like it or not, he’s been living in the shadow of Steve Jobs’ contributions to Apple since he took the CEO job.
He finally is looking to put his tailor-made stamp on the company before he leaves.
Cook has always been overshadowed by Jobs because he’s never been able to bring uniqueness like Jobs did.
At its WWDC developer conference recently, Apple presented a new version of its car operating system Carplay, which is due to be launched at the end of 2023.
So far, Carplay can do relatively little. Users can use the navigation, plus some apps like music and voice control and this is the first step to building a killer system that will later be installed as the car's nervous system.
Apple wants to completely take over the interior of the car in terms of software and the iPhone will simply be used as hardware.
The fact that the new Carplay version will not be available until the end of 2023 indicates that a stronger CPU will also be used in the iPhone. This will be the in-house M1 or M2 chip in the mobile version, which is expected in the iPhone by 2023 at the latest.
Just 4% of users say they prefer the built-in infotainment system to Apple's. In addition, owners of expensive vehicles are more likely to own a new iPhone model. So premium brands would run the risk of losing customers if they didn't offer Apple’s Carplay.
The batteries come from China, the electric motors from a supplier, as do large quantities of the other components.
Shockingly enough, there hasn’t been much pushback from elite German automakers like Mercedes and Audi.
This is a sign that they know they can’t compete in software against an army full of top-grade dorky software developers at Apple.
But then why would Apple need to work with a German automaker to install an expensive design that would spike costs?
Surely, Apple can outsource iCar manufacturing to China like they already do with the iPhone.
In the case that German automakers gleefully integrate Apple’s software into their own car design, it would mean death to corporate Germany.
It would decrease the value of German auto manufacturers by 75% overnight.
Technology is a winner-takes-all sweepstake and this business situation epitomizes that.
This would most likely get Apple to a $4 trillion market cap while crushing its European competition.
