Would seem likely this is more like "Apple executive finally realizes apple doesn't really want to build a car, so leaves.."
From a business perspective, possibly because it's a huge market and Apple has a lot of cash to invest. It's quite different to what they currently do, but they are limited in how much they can expand in their current markets so they're probably going to want to try something new. Entering the phone market was pretty ambitious too (not as ambitious, but they were a much smaller company then), and they were prepared to take their time doing it. I believe precursor forms of the iPhone were in development for over 10 years before it was actually released.
I'm not going to say that Apple will decide to manufacture cars, or that they'd be successful at it if they did decide to. But I wouldn't rule them out either.
Making pocket/rucksack electronic doodads is one thing. Cars are on a completely different level of industrialisation, supply chain management, dealer networking, service support... and existing competition.
And the plausible market capture is much smaller.
It would be like Apple trying to compete against NEC, Fujitsu, and IBM with a commercial mainframe project. They could surely get a product out. But why? And then what?
I think it's quite different. The car market is huge, and it's also a consumer market. Apple would struggle to make headway with enterprises, but they're good at consumer markets.
A lot of people would have said the same at the prospect of Apple competing with Nokia, RIM, etc in the phone world. And then they came out with a product that completely blew everyone away. A car is harder for sure, but they have the money and they also have the time so I don't really see why not.
If you look at previous behemoth companies, like GE, they tried to hit all these industries and overextended. There was GE energy, GE Capital, GE digital, GE Healthcare, GE Transportation systems, GE Aviation, and some part of that made light bulbs. With Apple, they can’t just keep producing phones and grow so the challenge is to break into new neighboring sectors. Their goal with the car was not so much to manufacture it as it was to provide industrial design, branding, and software support as an initial foray. They were turned back by Kia/Hyundai as not bringing enough to the table.
Apple clearly has healthcare ambitions by the Apple Watch. They're building stupidly popular medical monitoring devices, and a health data research platform. Seems like they could tip-toe their way towards medical records management software too.
I am surprised they don't offer more cloud services for app developers, but i'm guessing its hard for them to compete with the major clouds.
Apple does not have the manufacturing or sales chops to sell whole cars. While Apple Geniuses are great at fixing an iphone, they're ill equipped to service cars.
Apple is so big, they have to look to giant markets to expand into.
At their scale, they should probably always 'be thinking about making a car' because the potentiality is so big, but being prudent enough to say 'no' almost all of the time. To the point that I think it's unlikely they will make one.
They partnered with Motorola just before the iPhone to dip their feet, so watch out for that one, i.e. the fully integrated Fiat, designed by Aplle or something.
You would have said something similar if you had heard about Apple's Phone plans back in 2004-2006
Maybe they just try everything because they have infinite money, and don't want to become the next IBM or Microsoft.
- The set top box works with any TV and it's one SKU. The number of sizes/screen quality/prices that people would require from a TV is so not apple's MO. As much as apple loves integration, they'd prefer a one-SKU device more.
- Airplay is value, but they haven't really added to it lately. The existing AppleTV already does it, and so do 3rd party tvs.
- TVs are very low margin, and they don't own screen manufacturing so they're likely not able to take outsized profits from the market.
Regarding the Car - Its an open question if they're still doing it, but maybe like the TV, they shouldn't wont...
- They want to control the software and GUI and that's done now. Unless they want to control the car itself (eg. doors, alarms, etc. or self-driving) they don't need deeper integration.
- Cars are very complex, even for apple standards - and not complex in the way apple is familiar with. They have no experience building or differentiating in this industry (like screens wrt to TVs but 1000x less experience).
- CarPlay added tremendous value, and most cars have it now. Deeper integration of the phone as the brains makes sense. But does anything else?
https://www.apple.com/ios/home/accessories/#section-tv
And they sell Apple TV devices, which when plugged into a TV with HDMI CEC controls (all of them nowadays), renders TVs indistinguishable from one another except for picture quality and maybe how quickly they turn on and off.
I guess it is possible for them to integrate the Apple TV device directly into a TV, but I do not see the profit motive on the part of Apple nor the convenience motive on the part of the TV user as it is pretty easy to stick an Apple TV onto the back of a TV.
Sony/LG/Samsung have plenty of low-mid-high quality TVs for whoever wants them. There is nothing extra Apple can provide there.
HDMI CEC allows you to take a new TV, plug an apple TV in, and just use the Apple TV remote. The TV will automatically turn off and on switched to the Apple TV input, hence a dumb screen + Apple TV.
At least it works like that with Apple TV, I do not to see why Sony and Nintendo and Microsoft would not implement the same thing Apple did.
And there is no first time setup. Of course, to change the TV picture’s settings themselves you would have to use the TV.
Kind of works most of the time. I mainly use my Nvidia Shield for most things, but if I touched the playstation controller the inputs would compete for a bit and flip back and forth.
Just try it out, most of your stuff likely has it (if they're not 15 years old). They're called a lot of different things in menus between brands though, so google it for yours.
> can we make a version of this product that is differentiated enough to be meaningful in the market?
FWIW, I think the answer is 'No', unlike e.g. AR glasses or smartphones pre-2007.
Heck, Apple TV and the homepod each are struggling relative to competitors and apple really hasn't delivered anything innovative in those spaces. Aside from truly wireless headphones, I can't think of any successful apple product that isn't primarily a computer.
I've never heard any rumors after maybe 2010 of an apple TV product that isn't a set top box.
And other things. Car Play is great, but currently one of Apple's buggiest products.
I am wondering about the same question. Cars are not a high-margin business.
A car is basically a computer on wheels theses days.
I am almost certain they have moving parts.