As the perfect edge computing device, the automobile must be fully integrated, in terms of hardware and software development, writes Cihra.
For that reason, he sees Apple ultimately either making a car itself, or getting out of the market, rather than just building “modules,” as some have in past forecast:
Apple is investing in autonomous driving as “the mother of all AI projects” but has not yet committed to a car. Yet we see its entire business model based on vertically- integrated control, so think it unlikely Apple sells modular AI to third-parties. We rather expect Apple to get all-in or all-out over the next 2yrs, and are thinking all-in given the draw of technology disruption and sheer size of TAM.
Cihra has Buy ratings on Apple and Tesla.
Guess manch is right that Apple ultimately either making a car itself, or…
wuqijun may also be right Apple should buy TSLA but first we need TSLA to crash and burn…
Apple is not in the module selling business. It’s like selling MacOS without the Mac. Totally runs against Apple’s DNA. Tim Cook has been mostly following Steve Jobs’ playbook with some tactical rather than strategic changes.
Can you imagine a car with Apple branded self driving system but shitty entertainment systems in every car brand today? How can Jony Ive show his face among his high brow designer friends?
Designing an EV is easy. There is very little IP. EVERY car manufacturer has some EV project going on. The hard part is actually manufacturing it in high enough volume. And Tesla totally sucks at it.
The only thing holding up Tesla is Elon Musk’s personal cult. Apple has a brand even more powerful than Elon. No need for the playboy.
Piper Jaffray released a new survey that is of great importance to Apple. The financial firm asked the following question: “You currently own an iPhone yet you didn’t upgrade to (what Apple believes is) the best Apple phone yet, the iPhone X. Why?”
Most the the answers Piper Jaffray received were at least related to price.
31% said “it’s too expensive,” balking at the iPhone X’s $999 and $1,149 price points.
44% said “my iPhone works fine.” This answer was probably partly related to features and partly related to price. The message is that older iPhones are solid phones while the iPhone X’s feature set was not a big enough departure from those of older iPhones to justify the high price point. It also may be true that, had the iPhone X been priced the same as the iPhone 8, many more iPhone owners could have been persuaded to upgrade.
Another 8% said “I prefer a larger screen” (than the 5.8-inch display on the iPhone X).
Hardware upgrade or iOS upgrade? Norm hardware upgrade period is 3-4 years… lengthen from previous 1.5-2.5 years. Internals such as battery and circuitry can’t keep up with software upgrade, so is more efficient to sell the 3-4 years old iPhone on craiglist/ebay/Apple or whatever places at pretty good 2nd hand price, and buy a new one. I upgrade my iPhone every 3 years… used to be 2 years. I’m lazy, so always sell back to Apple.
Even the recruiters do not understand the technology positions they are hiring for(they only are familiar with the job requirement keywords). So, I will be surprised if she understands technology.
All in all, I thought the move to the HomePod was going well right until my family staged an intervention. Their annoyance with Siri misunderstanding or misinterpreting has grown over the last few weeks, and the clumsiness with which Siri handles — or doesn’t handle — some requests has become bothersome.
I’ve overheard several interactions with the HomePod that entail a family member asking for a song or album that ends in getting upset with the device when it starts playing something else. The Echo — coupled with Amazon Music — had a much higher hit rate when it came to accurately playing what was desired.
In short, the increase in sound quality doesn’t make up for the frustration of using Siri. The HomePod is going to live in my studio; the Echo is back in its rightful place in the kitchen.
Looks like Siri is still shit. Blows my mind that Apple shipped Siri while Jobs was in his death bed, that’s over 7 years ago, and Siri still sucks. Today. Meanwhile Amazon just came from nowhere and Alexa is already better.
Somehow I missed this news. Facebook has been lagging in the last month or two. I think it’s misunderstood, undervalued and therefore presents a rare opportunity to load up on its shares. I have been buying calls. Will keep loading up.
on HomePod.
May be the author’s children should learn to speak Singlish.
