Apple launched another bomb into the world today: the (tacit) announcement of a ship date of an electric-car for 2019. Here are 5 reasons why BMW, Mercedes, Ferrari, Lamborghini, Bugatti, and the rest should be very afraid:
1. Disrupted Music Industry: Apple wasn't in the business of MP3s or music downloading, until the iPod, which not only took down the likes of Napster, but an entire industry of production companies, CD sales, and expanding into DVDs, university lectures and the like. It wasn't just the hardware, but also the software of iTunes and Garage Band that took down the middleman from producer to consumer, as well as the whole business model of the Apple Store. In 2011, when iTunes turned 10 years-old, and according to the Recording Industry Association of America, record sales had plummeted from $11B to $7B--but, music sales were skyrocketing like never before.
2. Disrupted News Media: When Jobs launched the iPad, he completely disrupted the way news media would be consumed: suddenly giants were scrambling to create apps to prevent themselves from going out of business, and subsequently finding ways to make a profit while putting their entire news online. The same can be said for books and magazines.
3. Don't forget the iPhone: One day Jobs came into the design lab at Apple and threw his cell phone on the table in frustration: the device was crap, and he wanted to make a better one just to save himself the bitter agony of having to use the one he had. Apparently the iPad was being developed, which became the template for the iPhone--the rest is history. Just take a visit to Blackberry HQ...
4. The Store: While Apple was revolutionizing the digital marketplace with iTunes, it was doing the same for bricks and mortar retail with their Apple Stores; and it wasn't just the architecture, the design of which matched the aesthetic of the product, but the whole service of merchandise, sales personnel, and the use of technology to speed up the process.
5. Big Money + Vision: It was Mercedes's CEO who claimed at the Frankfurt Auto Show last week that Apple has the money to pull a big disruption off in the auto industry. Everyone knows that. And kudos to them. Instead of squandering dollars on putting another NHL team in California, they're investing it into disruption. It's not just the big dollars, but the vision to keep innovating, keep disrupting, keep creating. And it is this spirit within Apple that is the biggest reason why they could seriously take over the auto industry.
What we will most likely see with Apple is that when the electric-car is launched--whenever it's launched--it won't just be a car, but a series of processes and experiences that will make the whole interaction between machine and user like nothing else in the marketplace--including Tesla. We'll see a revolutionary system not only for packaging, promoting, and purchasing, but also for fuelling and maintenance. It will be an experience like nothing else in the market; and it will blow the big car manufacturers away, or leave them scrambling for the scraps left by Apple's dust. In fact, for companies like BMW and Mercedes and Volkswagen--sophisticated in their own right--the writing may already be on the wall.
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