Apple's reportedly serious about making cars. Don't hold your breath
The Apple rumor of the moment is that the tech giant is stretching its wings and getting into the automotive industry. Reports from The Wall Street Journal and Reuters stoked smoldering rumors that Apple is looking for a way to break into the car industry, devoting a boatload of resources to designing what the Journal called a "minivan"-like vehicle code-named "Titan."
"Oh sure," a seasoned Apple watcher might say. We'll see that Apple car on the roads, just as soon as we get those Apple televisions in our living rooms.
In the realm of Apple vaporware, the television is legend. And the two rumors, at least on the surface, seem pretty comparable. Both markets cry out for a simple, user-friendly product that integrates hardware and software, something that Apple prides itself on being able to provide. And both would take Apple outside of its core comfort zone - cars even more than televisions, since Apple does already make monitors.
But actually, one could argue that Apple faces a lower hurdle in looking at cars. Making a really good, smart television - one that truly integrates software and hardware together - is difficult (as Samsung and others are proving right now) and requires the cooperation of a cadre of networks and studios to sign content partnerships. That's a side of the equation that Apple doesn't control.
Whereas if any company in the world could simply buy their way into the car industry, it would be Apple, with $178 billion in cash and even a few factories at its disposal. But even if Apple is seriously considering a bigger step into the car market - a company spokesman declined to comment on "rumor and speculation" - it doesn't necessarily mean it has to take on General Motors. It has the brand reputation to become a boutique car seller, offering just a handful of vehicles for luxury prices.
The safe money, of course, is that Apple is using this rumored experiment as a way to delve deeper into becoming the core software provider for cars. The company and its arch rival, Google, has devoted a lot of time into making intuitive menus and controls that the current, automaker-designed systems at times struggle to deliver. Many auto manufacturers are caving to customer demand to have their dashboards look more like their smartphones, and can help drivers do more without distracting them from the road. That demand gets even greater if we do end up with self-driving cars and our vehicles essentially become moving offices. Theoretically, that's where Apple could step in.
So iCars would make a certain amount of sense, but it seems unlikely that we'll see them on the road soon. Apple is deliberative, and often happy to step in behind other companies that have done the spaghetti-throwing for them - or at least to keep their own prototyping behind closed doors.
If "Titan" is a serious project, there is one critical question to be addressed. Given Apple's reputation for cool - even of the practical, luxury-to-the-masses variety - one has to ask: A minivan? Really?