

It also reported sales from the “Services” segment, which included sales from advertising, digital content, AppleCare and other lines. In the first three quarters this year, it reported over $150 billion of iPhone sales, which represented 55% of total sales. To do this, we need to ignore that Apple is not just a handset manufacturer. In other words, let’s assume that Tesla is going to become the Apple of automakers.
#Ms office 2007 free download full version cnet software
Similarly, let’s imagine that the production and value of automobiles and light trucks will become less about the style or performance that is demanded and instead mostly about the software inside the vehicle.įinally (and this is a huge debate, but) let’s presuppose that Tesla will have better software – most importantly better autonomous driving capability – than any other vendor or manufacturer, whether in Silicon Valley, Detroit, Wolfsburg or elsewhere. Meanwhile, thanks to the iPhone, handset hardware has gone from a myriad of styles, sizes and forms to basically one. Today, there are 250 brands of cars sold to fit all appetites and budgets, and perhaps over 1,000 trims. Fast forward to 2021, and the bulls are suggesting that Apple’s overwhelming success in handset manufacturing can be mirrored in automobile manufacturing by Elon Musk’s Tesla.įor this to happen, let’s first assume that within 15 years buyers will demand a broadly similar “form factor” for any vehicle. Meanwhile, industry leader Nokia held a 40% market share and by the end of 2007 sported a $230 billion market cap.Īnd that changed the game for Nokia, Blackberry and the entire industry, forever.Ĭoincidentally, Jobs introduced that iPhone seven months after Tesla introduced the Roadster at the San Francisco International Auto Show. The Defense Department stepped in, claiming that a Blackberry injunction was a threat to national security. District Court judge slapped an injunction on sales. In 2006, Research in Motion (RIM), the company making BlackBerrys, lost a patent suit against NTP and a U.S. Nokia/Blackberry/Ericsson/Motorola dynamic.įor those that don’t know, in the early 2000s it was unimaginable that these legacy mobile phone manufacturers could disappear.

They suggest that automaking may go the way of handset manufacturing and that – for Tesla TSLA, -0.87% – there is a strong resemblance to the Apple AAPL, +0.47% vs. In them, they draw analogies to one of the most successful brands and businesses in the history of capitalism. Fans and shareholders of Tesla are making stronger and louder arguments about the future of their favorite company.
