rbnetengr

sagan_student said:

My best guess for how Apple is going to blow up the market and offer something that differentiates it from other car companies is to approach it to through services. Apple would supply a car service like no other. And with the integration with iOS, the ease and personalization you would experience upon entering the service would far exceed what any other service could offer. 

Then you consider some of Apple’s possible costs... the maintenance on electric vehicles versus combustion vehicles, electric wins hands down. For the replacement parts (tires/brakes), these can be easily monitored and replaced on a schedule (something that Apple is exceptionally good at). The avoidance of having to build dealerships (as you are not selling cars). 

When I ask the question how much mark up can one make on the sale of a car? My guess is on the low side of things. I don’t see how Apple makes its usual percentage on selling vehicles. But if they create fleets of vehicles and slowly dispatch them in major cities they are not competing with vehicle makers directly; rather, they are coming at them from a position that fits Apple’s playbook and next thing you know the game has changed and Apple is in a dominant position in very quick fashion... say 10 years?? 

There are many cars that have been on the market for years that will turn on a reminder to get a service (Oil, Brakes, etc).  But many of these have no basis in reality. After all, why would anyone who cares about maintaining his/her $70k (or much more) BMW, Mercedes Benz, etc. have the oil changed once per year because “the car told me”?  Manufacturers who provide ‘free’ maintenance under warranty, like BMW, are clearly wanting to do the minimum amount of maintenance under warranty. That’s why so many BMWs on the used market have engine issues, because they had three oil changes in 50k miles, rather than ten!  And there’s no way that anyone, even Apple, could determine that the tires, brakes, wheel bearings, etc are worn and need service.  They are all just time/ usage estimations, and why would Apple be any better at doing that than manufacturers who have built cars for decades?

Also, who is going to service these Apple vehicles if Apple doesn’t have a dealer network? Pep Boys? Firestone? Midas? Eddie’s Auto Shop? 

I am also a fan of trackballs. I have been using a Kensington Orbit trackball for over ten years now, with both Windows and MacOS computers, and have been very happy with it. 

Bringing manufacturing jobs back to America is how we are Making America Great Again.  

Is this how we Make America Great Again?

I think that it doesn’t make sense to offer mm wave  5G in an iPhone. Mm waves require line of sight for communication, so you need to not only have your device out in the open, but also a clear shot to a mm wave antenna. At mm wavelengths, the radio waves act light light waves. So, if your device is in a ‘shadow’ caused by something blocking your device’s line of sight, it will either not work at all, or work poorly.  Verizon is apparently banking on it to claim the highest 5G speeds, but what good is it if it’s only available in 2% of their coverage footprint?