There are dozens of ways in which Apple’s apparent effort to build an Apple-branded car could go wrong, but there’s one argument against the idea that I’m hearing a lot of that really doesn’t make sense. From Henry Blodget to former GM CEO Daniel Akerson to the LA Times to Yahoo Finance people are saying this won’t work because the car industry is a “low margin” business in contrast to the fat margins Apple is used to earning most of all on its workhorse iPhone.
Vox has a great take on the “low margin” aspect of this Apple Car story. The observations of idiots like the former GM CEO, Daimler AG chairman, and Yahoo Finance writers are so completely out of touch with the reality that Apple has been operating under for the last decade, that it’s no wonder they find their companies (Mercedes excepted) swirling around the toilet bowl with all the other turds of business.
That being said, those minivans Apple rented that have been seen driving all over CA, FL, AZ and a few other places, have been proven to be mapping vehicles (possibly even 3D mapping). So all this palaver of Apple building a car in the next five years, while interesting and fun to talk about, is just silly click-bait at this point in time.