Is Apple Quietly Overtaking The Infotainment Sector Of The Auto Industry?

One of the most impressive announcements Apple made last week was not the pricing of its new Watch nor the litheness of its new laptop, but rather that CarPlay — its proprietary interface between iOS and the automobile — has now officially been adopted by every major automaker.

Why is this so impressive?

First, it means that Apple will now be in a position to dominate the final frontier of the digital world, that still-up-for-grabs territory between the home and the office known as the car. Second, it shows what can happen when a company develops a longterm strategy and sticks to it.

Ever since the advent of the iPhone, automakers have been trying to woo Apple. In 2007, for example, news of a meeting between Volkswagen AG chief Martin Winterkorn and Steve Jobs led to all sorts of wild speculation in the media about a technological tie-up between the two iconic brands along the lines of Ford Motor alliance with Microsoft.

But Apple had bigger plans. Instead of one slice of the global car market, it wanted the whole pie.
 

ParadoX - 3/18/2015 2:52:07 PM

+3 Boost

This is why I don't think apple is building a car or has plans to. I think they want to dominate the infotainment sector. They want an iPad on your dashboard which they can make high margins on, unlike cars where they would have to accept a lower margin and capital intensive production costs.

MDarringer - 3/18/2015 8:20:44 PM

+1 Boost

Exactly. This is why they will not buy Tesla. They don't need to. The "mainstreamization" of EVs will not happen Tesla, but Toyota, Honda, Ford, GM, etc. and their luxury brands will benefit from that .

Vette71 - 3/18/2015 9:20:41 PM

+1 Boost

On the money. When highly profit businesses acquire low margin business their stockholders suffer from the profit dilution, and these companies usually don't know how to manage a different business. With this strategy Apple greatly expands the high margin business it knows how to do, and leaves the low margin business to others. Even if Tesla should it make it into the larger automotive business it won't be as high margin as Apple, but with a lot of luck might be slightly more profitable then the rest of auto business which is in its maturity.

TheSteve - 3/18/2015 4:41:09 PM

0 Boost

Personally, I'm not impressed with today's Apple and their cheesy looking mobile interface. Flat, monochromatic or 1970's retro-color icons remind me of what computers looked like decades ago. Sparse, unfinished looking apps with ambiguus interfaces. A new abundance of glitchiness and bugs. In my mind, they're The New Microsoft.

atc98092 - 3/19/2015 8:13:26 AM

+2 Boost

I will reserve my opinion until I see it functional in a car. At the moment, I don't use an iPhone (I've been on a Windows phone for over 2 years with almost no complaints). I'm purposely holding off upgrading my phone until I see what comes on the market for car connectivity.

Right now, I can stream music from either my phone or my work Blackberry over Bluetooth to my Passat with no effort at all. However, I would much prefer to use Pandora instead of my limited music selection. But Blackberry, Windows Phone and Android devices won't send audio over the USB port. My employer is dumping Blackberry and I should be getting an iPhone (5S is my guess) within the next couple of weeks. I know the MDI interface in my car will work with Pandora audio, and the song metadata will display on my radio screen. While that means a cable connection, it also means my phone battery isn't slammed while using it this way.