As soon as the news of Apple's cancellation of the campaign came out, even Musk came out to pay tribute, and the industry estimated that this matter was most likely true. What do you think about this?
It is a wise decision to strategically abandon the broken wrist of a strong man at this stage, because to be honest, Apple has missed the best time to enter the automotive industry, which may be in the past, may be in the future, but not now.
We often say that a sword is sharpened in ten years, and Apple's "Titan Project" has also been sharpened for 10 years, but now it is a nail in the tire and deflated.
Is it that Apple has no money, no technology, no resources? That's definitely neither, whether Apple wants to build a whole car or a solution, to be honest, he can reduce the dimensionality of the attack, so why did he end up shutting down the entire department? I think there are three core reasons.
It's not that making a car is not profitable, but it was also a matter of full research and saw the huge market to enter, but the return cycle of the automobile industry is relatively long, so now the knife is quick to cut through the mess, because the best time has passed, stop loss in time.
What about the current economic situation? Even Google is laying off employees, Apple's car project has not been scratched, and in the short term, it will not be able to make money for the company.
After all, Apple's mobile phone business is in crisis at present, and Huawei has caused Apple's sales to decline directly, so it has to quickly keep its old capital.
In the past decade, the new car-making forces have been divided into two categories, one is the current situation to create heroes, and the other is to catch ducks on the shelves.
Tesla belongs to the heroes of the times, and at the time of its establishment, electric vehicles were just ignoring, so the key was to encounter an important event, the 2008 financial crisis.
The emergence of the financial crisis made Obama at that time begin to increase investment and support for green energy, and at the same time, the sharp fluctuations in oil ** also indirectly increased the expectations of electric vehicles.
And because the global automobile industry was hit hard at that time, the traditional giants such as General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler were more or less funded or reorganized under the intervention of the first company, which also allowed startups like Tesla to seize the opportunity to develop and grow in the troubled times.
From a technical point of view, that point in time also happened to be an early stage of the rapid development of the lithium battery industry.
So the current lithium battery giant CATL was established in 2011, and there was a lot of industrial investment in this area at that time.
In China, a number of new forces such as Weilai, Li and Xpeng have actually encountered a good time, that is, Tesla has driven the investment in the electric vehicle industry.
The transformation of the automobile industry began to be driven by a series of policies such as carbon neutrality and new energy subsidies, which is to bet on the right track at the right time and smash it out with money.
Frankly speaking, many electric vehicle products or brands launched by traditional car companies, as well as Xiaomi, which entered the market with a high profile today, and Apple, which withdrew from the car business, are all ducks on the shelves in my opinion.
To a large extent, they entered the electric vehicle market based on the judgment of the market and the requirements of the board of directors.
This leads to the relatively passive progress of their projects, because the market has established a certain cognitive standard for the current electric vehicle products, and you can only choose to obey, and it is difficult to create another new definition on your own.
So as far as Apple is concerned, what has he done in 10 years?
The industry feels that they have to hold a criticism meeting internally, and the current situation is that no matter what you do, you have to act in accordance with the established industry rules, and you have lost the qualification to set the industry standard at the earliest.
So this is a matter of timing, rather than passive, it is better not to move.
No matter what kind of new forces can make some achievements today, in fact, there is a common characteristic, that is, the founders of the enterprise are mobilizing all the resources that can be mobilized.
Lei Jun, who is all in electric vehicles, has already put his focus on the car on the surface, and the mobile phone press conference is no longer on stage, and it is handed over to the second master.
But what about Tim Cook, on the other hand? As a professional manager, he did not devote himself to the automotive business, but still focused on the innovation of Apple's classic business.
That's fine, because Tim Cook's more important task is to keep a business than to start a business.
However, the automobile industry is a long-term entrepreneurial project, and he needs a commander with great leadership to command the operation under the absolute right to speak, so the judgment of the founder can basically determine the survival status of the project in a certain period.
In a huge multinational company like Apple, it is not uncommon for a single executive to be parachuted and thousands or even hundreds of millions of dollars in resources to do the car business, but such executives are task-oriented, not entrepreneurial.
Of all the surviving new forces we can see today, which one was not invested by the founders themselves?
At the car-making table, you either have to fight to the death with your wealth, or stop production for 6 months like Gaohe Automobile, it's as simple as that!
So, all of the people who can have a place at the table today are those who have a clear banner and are picking up the big banner.
Even Lei Jun knows how challenging the automotive industry can be, so he chooses to take it personally.
Tesla has a market capitalization of more than $600 billion, but Musk is still the general manager.
Therefore, all industries with long return cycles, complex industrial chains, and fierce competition are absolutely dominated by founders, and it is difficult for a certain executive within a large enterprise to take the lead.
In the field of electric vehicles, the heavier the burden, the harder it is to survive.
Traditional automobiles are a relatively closed industrial forest, and the enterprises that can survive have been tempered for decades or even hundreds of years, and have been too big to fail, and at the market level, they have a greater right to speak in the face of consumers.
In the field of electric vehicles, the technical path of the industrial forest has been deflected, and the right to speak in technology has also been transferred, so the opinions of the terminal market will actually affect the decision-making of product designers more inversely.
In other words, today's electric cars are no longer sold by you and I buy, but I buy and you build.
Due to the lowering of the entry barrier, the competition has never been more intense, and the evaluation system of automobile product rates has been completely changed, computing power has replaced acceleration ability, software power has replaced chassis skills, and various advanced sensors armed to the teeth have also become rigid configurations.
The original arrogant innovation of traditional car companies squeezing toothpaste has now become a flattering innovation that is eager to change in a year.
In this context, enterprises are either technologically blockbuster and practice peerless martial arts, or they have insight into demand and develop obscenely.
Why can Tesla do it? It's like the iPhone of the day, creating a product that has never been seen before, and it's technically setting the tone.
So far, Tesla's technology research and development capabilities are also the strongest among all electric vehicle companies, and there is no one, this is a peerless martial art.
Some people will ask, why is the ideal car without core technology very profitable and has achieved hundreds of billions of revenues? The reason is simple, its founder is a product manager!
Your so-called refrigerators, color TVs, and large sofas don't seem to have any technical content, but from the sales level, these are all experiential values.
The ideal with the lowest cost, the most feasible plan, brings you the previous millions of luxury cars did not have this texture, ** only three or four hundred thousand, such a big car sold at this price, and constantly superimposed discounts, can it be sold poorly?
Therefore, those new forces that have risen to a high profile as soon as they come up are very difficult to live. This kind of business may not win at the table, but it is definitely the one who stays the longest, and it will make money first.
For Apple, the biggest problem with this "Titan Project" lies in Apple's own characteristics, he always wants to be the first in a field, and always wants to do those things that Apple can do, but in fact, in the smart electric vehicle industry, what is there that only Apple can do?
You are either really amazing, or you just adapt to the demand, obviously, Apple's car project is not embarrassing, neither practiced peerless martial arts, nor willing to compromise on the road, then the final outcome is to return to the original point in the midst of great expectations.
But I still want to make a point that Apple's cancellation of car manufacturing is the biggest loss for the entire technology industry.
Because Apple is the only one among all technology companies that has a strong software and hardware ecology at the same time, especially the semiconductor technology stack, and has a strong integration ability of the global ** chain.
The basic technology of electric vehicles is the general knowledge of the industry, and the real winner is semiconductors and **.
If Apple can inject this technology into the definition of a car, it will definitely be a nuclear bomb, but it's a pity that Cook didn't personally lead the team.
Although such an analysis will inevitably be said to be hindsight, one day in the future, I think Apple will return to the car track.
After all, the car is now not only a means of transportation, but more importantly, it is a computing terminal.
And when Tim Cook makes up for this shortcoming in the AI area, then that time may be the best time for Apple to really make efforts in the automotive industry.