Image credit – Bloomberg
For the longest time, it was rumored that Apple was developing a full-fledged car. However, after countless rumors we started hearing reports that the company was focusing on developing self-driving car technology instead. It’s clear now that Apple is focusing on the latter with a potential aim of licensing the technology to a conventional car manufacturer. However, an analyst believes that the company will be “all-in or all-out” of self-driving cars within two years.
Guggenheim’s Robert Cirha says that while Apple is heavily investing in its autonomous driving project it’s still undecided on building an actual car.
Since Apple’s entire business model is based on vertically-integrated control, the analyst feels that it’s unlikely that Apple will license its self-driving car technology to a third party. “We rather expect Apple to get all-in or all-out over the next 2 yrs,” he says.
He further expects Apple to be all-in owing to the technology disruption and the sheer size of the total market that it could cater to. The future of mobility is increasingly shaping up to be both electric and autonomous and with major car manufacturers heavily investing in both, an opportunity exists for Apple as well.
Going back to the drawing board for its own car would present Apple with some challenges. It doesn’t have the manufacturing capacity so it will have to find a manufacturer that produces the vehicles for it. It will also have to expand its support infrastructure and adjust to longer upgrade cycles because most people might buy a new iPhone every year but only a few buy a new car every year.
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