Apple By Matthew Humphries Feb. 17, 2014 8:30 am
Apple owes its status as most valuable US company to swift sales of its mobile devices including the iPhone and iPad. But growing competition, especially from Android devices, means the company either needs to innovate once again with a totally new device, or break into new markets with a very different product.
It’s that second option that is being rumored at the moment, and it’s in a market you may not even have considered: Apple may want to start selling cars.
There is a rumor making the rounds today that last year, Adrian Perica, head of acquisitions at Apple, had a meeting with Elon Musk. It is also thought Tim Cook may have attended that meeting, showing how serious Apple was/is about the electric car company.
That meeting apparently happened in the Spring last year, so Elon Musk may have said thanks, but no thanks. It seems unlikely Apple would give up on such an acquisition so easily, though, and the company certainly has enough money available to entice Musk to sell.
Purchasing a car company may seem like an unusual move if it wasn’t for Apple’s biggest rival already showing a major interest in vehicle development. Google is taking a different route into cars, however, wanting to make them driverless and therefore more efficient and safer. The only way Apple could really compete with that would be to purchase a company like Tesla. In fact, Tesla is already a lot like Apple–it offers very high end products and continues to push the industry forward with innovation.
I personally think electric cars and the network of charging stations required to support them remain a very personal quest for Elon Musk. That in turn means he wouldn’t even consider selling the company right now. Once the US network is complete, Tesla vehicles are selling fast, and expansions around the world are planned, he may consider Apple’s approaches.
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It’s that second option that is being rumored at the moment, and it’s in a market you may not even have considered: Apple may want to start selling cars.
There is a rumor making the rounds today that last year, Adrian Perica, head of acquisitions at Apple, had a meeting with Elon Musk. It is also thought Tim Cook may have attended that meeting, showing how serious Apple was/is about the electric car company.
That meeting apparently happened in the Spring last year, so Elon Musk may have said thanks, but no thanks. It seems unlikely Apple would give up on such an acquisition so easily, though, and the company certainly has enough money available to entice Musk to sell.
Purchasing a car company may seem like an unusual move if it wasn’t for Apple’s biggest rival already showing a major interest in vehicle development. Google is taking a different route into cars, however, wanting to make them driverless and therefore more efficient and safer. The only way Apple could really compete with that would be to purchase a company like Tesla. In fact, Tesla is already a lot like Apple–it offers very high end products and continues to push the industry forward with innovation.
I personally think electric cars and the network of charging stations required to support them remain a very personal quest for Elon Musk. That in turn means he wouldn’t even consider selling the company right now. Once the US network is complete, Tesla vehicles are selling fast, and expansions around the world are planned, he may consider Apple’s approaches.
More...
