Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) car is one vehicle around which all the talks at the Geneva car show to be held this week could rotate, says a report from Reuters by Edward Taylor and Jan Schwtarz It is very much likely that such a vehicle is never be built. The event to be held at the Swiss city will have automakers from across the world showcasing their latest vehicles.
Is Apple a threat to automakers?
There is a sudden rise in the longer-term worries following the news that Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) could possibly consider building a car, major carmakers started discussing their capabilities for building a car of the future. These carmakers have been in the industry for about 127 years, and they still doubt their skills regarding manufacturing a car of the future.
Efforts from the technology giants, Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) and Google (working on driver-less cars) to foray in the auto segment, to add new streams of revenue, had led to worry for most of the automakers. Rising clout of Apple, also, gives them a serious reason for worry. At present, the market capitalization of Apple is around $750 billion, which is way more than many other giant automakers clubbed together.
Technology providing opportunities
Technology companies and automakers have got new business opportunities because of the growing use of computing power in vehicles, and also due to the newly found ability of cars to connect with the devices that include smartphones, tablets etc. says the report. This has, also, led to higher competition between them.
There is a constant battle between carmakers and the tech companies for controlling the brain of the next generation vehicles says Thilo Koslowski, vice president automotive at technology market research firm Gartner. “Among the automakers there will be two camps: those who understand this space, and those who give outside technology companies access to the center stack of the vehicle. Those companies will emerge in the next five years,” he said.
As of now, there is no hint from Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) whether or not it is working on a car of the future. Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook made no comment on the matter in an interview with German mass-circulation daily Bild am Sonntag on Sunday.
