The king of Apple product whistleblowers, analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, posted an update on Twitter about the Apple Car project:
The Apple Car project is indeed a series of twists and turns. It has been underway since 2014 under the code name “Titan.” The person in charge of the Titan project has also changed several times between now and 2021. On November 18, 2019, Bloomberg reported that Apple has decided to build a car and plans to mass produce it by 2025. The company is also looking for suppliers and car companies around the world to work with.
In 2018, after Apple hired Doug Field, the senior vice president of engineering who led the mass production of the Model 3, from Tesla and also hired a group of automakers responsible for the chassis, interior and exterior decoration, styling, systems, and so on.
According to reports, Apple CEO Cook agreed that Apple would build a car in 2019,
At that time, Doug Field joined Tesla from Apple for five years. He served as senior vice president of engineering there and was directly responsible for the mass production of Tesla’s best-selling model, the Model 3. Such a resume is considered ideally suited for a leadership position. Apple is in the process of redefining the intelligent car.
In September 2021, Doug Field left Apple again after returning to Apple for three years and was poached by Ford, a traditional automotive company, as Chief Advanced Technology and Embedded Systems Officer. Doug Field’s departure was replaced by Kevin Lynch, the head of the Apple Watch.
It is worth noting that Bob Mansfield was the head of Apple’s car project before Doug Field. Bob Mansfield is an expert in smart hardware and senior vice president for Mac hardware development. He once designed the world’s thinnest computer, the MacBook Air. Doug Field’s successor is the head of the Apple Watch, Kevin Lynch.
Judging by the resumes of Apple’s last three project leaders, there are hardware gods who can design the MacBook Air, the head of mass production of the most successful Tesla electric car, and the head of the most successful wearable device. Can the design concepts and product ideas these people bring to Apple Cars end up being integrated well?
In 2011, Tim Cook was named CEO, and to date, Cook has been at Apple for 13 years. He once served as Apple’s vice president of computer manufacturing and joined Apple. Before that, Cook spent 12 years at IBM, where he worked in the IBM’s PC division.
Unlike Jobs, who is a gifted designer, Cook is better at guarding the land. Jobs could get Apple to design amazing products like the iPhone and MacBook Air, but under Cook, Apple seems to have lost that ability. When it comes to the iPhone, Apple has always lacked innovation under Cook, although Apple has still made some strides with some small accessories like the TWS wireless headphones, watches, etc.
But Cook is the CEO that Wall Street likes. Under his reign, Apple’s revenue has increased from $108 billion in 2011 to $365 billion in 2021, and net profit has risen from $26 billion to $95 billion. Apple has also made American history. The first tech company to break the $1 trillion, $2 trillion, and $3 trillion mark in market capitalization.
Cook is certainly an excellent professional manager who knows how to run a company, but he is not a CEO who can create an entirely new market. In addition to the pillar of the mobile phone business, Apple has invested very early and very heavily in the automotive sector, but apart from a mobile phone-car-machine connectivity system CarPlay, the most anticipated Apple car is yet to be seen.
