Why Apple Really Cares About Cars
Rumors were rampant last week about an electric car project within Apple, dubbed Titan, which might compete with Tesla Motors.
Those of us who know Apple very well hear these rumors and just roll our eyes. That does not mean we don't believe Apple is not highly interested in cars, but building an actual car is not in Apple's DNA. Similarly, many people think Apple is building its own TV, but that's not in Apple's traditional capabilities either.
There's one very key fact about Apple that some people don't understand. It goes back to one of Steve Jobs's personal mantras, which was to take a product such as the PC and make it easier to use and deliver a greater overall user experience tied to apps and services. That was at the heart of creating a graphical user interface for the first Mac, and how he and his teams designed the UI on the iPod, iPhone, and iPad.
In each case, the product or hardware had existed for some time. What he did was make it easier to use, give it apps, content, and services, and make sure it appealed to a broad audience. In other words, the hardware was just a vehicle (pun intended) to deliver these overall apps and services.
Apple did have to create hardware to serve as the receptacles for these apps and services, but the need to create an Apple Car is pretty far fetched given Apple's core competencies. It makes much more sense to work on a way to integrate a new and rich UI, apps, and services for use in the car (and on a TV) than to create its own branded hardware in each of these categories.
For the car, I believe Apple is interested in creating a whole in-car digital experience that spans navigation, voice search, communications, media, and safety and wants to learn from what Tesla has done so far. That is why it reportedly poached Tesla employees (or tried to). Ultimately, it wants to revolutionize the in-car navigation, audio/video, communication, and safety features experience and work to get them integrated into future automobiles. To put it simply, Apple wants to own the dashboard.
For Apple TV, it makes no sense for it to create its own TV given the TV market competition and the rapid change in TV hardware itself. However, Jobs had a major vision on how to revolutionize the TV navigation and user interface and deliver live and streaming content with integrated apps and services. That is most likely going to be delivered through a brand-new Apple TV set-top box that I believe will be released later this year. In this case, Apple wants to own the digital interface to all televisions.
You can never rule out Apple doing something brand new in hardware and even in a new category of devices. However, an Apple-branded car or TV would be quite a stretch. Also, there are no Foxconns, Quantas, or Compals for creating automobiles. If Apple was going to do a car it would make more sense for it to acquire Tesla outright since it has the money. But given the clashing egos of Tim Cook and Elon Musk, the probability of this happening is very, very low.
It would not surprise me if Apple is creating a vehicle reference design in the form of an automobile shell. Or, for that matter, taking an actual existing car and customizing it to show off what this experience could be like. Apple could wait for the car makers to figure out how to integrate what it is doing into future car designs, but it would be more productive if Apple created a working model of this that demonstrated its vision for CarPlay and how to implement that in future vehicle designs.
This could explain why some have seen an Apple vehicle driving around equipped with cameras and sensors. Any new whole car digital experience would need cameras and sensors to deliver innovative ways to navigate, collect data, and improve safety.
So, if you hear that Apple is creating an actual car, be very skeptical. But if you hear it is learning about electric cars and self-driving cars, that probably has more basis in reality, though I believe it is tied more to the ultimate smart UI than to the creation of a car with its logo on it.
But even with all types of rumors, Apple will probably not announce anything about Project Titan for quite awhile. It could be a research project that, like others, never make it to market. Or it could be something none of us can even imagine. Either way, Apple without Steve Jobs at the helm is becoming a different and less predictable company.
For more, see Why an Apple Car Makes Sense.
Posted by: Kris Murray <krismurray@gmail.com>
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