Ten years later, Apple finally had an "epiphany" and made a move that made the tech community and the car industry drop their jaws.
On February 28, foreign media reported that Apple has decided to abandon its car-building plan and let some of the employees involved in the project turn to the field of generative artificial intelligence.
Musk arrived at the "scene" as soon as possible and kneaded his complicated feelings into a set of "salute + smoking" expression combinations. Lei Jun, Li Xiang, He Xiaopeng, and Zhou Hongyi also expressed their positions, some expressed shock and surprise, and some analyzed the reasons, but the parties themselves remained silent from beginning to end.
In the midst of the mixed discussions, Apple's abandonment of building a car is unexpected, and it seems to be reasonable.
The car-making plan starts early in the morning and catches up late, coupled with objective realistic factors such as technology and ** chain, as well as the "subversive" brand image that Apple has been shaking, even if it is not bad for money, it is unrealistic and cost-effective to come up with a car circle "iPhone" that not only conforms to its own tonality but also meets consumer expectations.
When it comes to building cars, if you can't be the first, you won't do it, which is very Apple. But Apple's decision this time caused an uproar, not only because of the precipice of car building and timely stop loss, but also because of the other side of giving up car building and embracing the current hot artificial intelligence.
As Li Xiang said, the electrification of cars is the first half, and artificial intelligence is the final. Zhou Hongyi hit the nail on the head: if Apple is busy making smart cars and ignores AI, Apple's foundation will be shaken.
What is the root of an apple? At least for now, it's still a mobile phone.
In the end, the "volume" of the large model is the explosion of the application, and the application means that there must be a carrier, and mobile phones, computers, and rings are all selected objects. But among them, it is the mobile phone that is given the greatest imagination, and Apple is precisely the biggest hegemon in the mobile phone market.
Occupying the innate advantage of the carrier, coupled with the strongest assistance of AI, with Apple's ability, it is not worried about creating new explosive models and new possibilities.
What's more, Apple has also tried to shift its focus from hardware to software services, so "terminal + AI" is not a "1+1)2" attempt.
Friends and businessmen have already gone to the field to fight in person, and the progress of Apple's "generative AI on iPhones" is still in the outside world.
And Microsoft and Nvidia, one because of the association with openAI, the market value once surpassed Apple, and the other because of the embrace of artificial intelligence, the market value is infinitely close to Apple, if Apple continues to be so "mysterious" "restrained", it will really be a little obsessed.
Although the current artificial intelligence technology is not yet mature, and no one can accurately say when and how AI will subvert the world, a consensus has already been formed: today's AI is like the Internet and mobile Internet in the past.
Sometimes choice is more important than effort, especially in the face of the wind. Apple may not be able to build another "Tesla" in the long cycle, so even billions of dollars will not help.