iPhone, iPod, Apple Watch are behind but are market champions: Is Apple hatching similar plans with Apple Car?

Apple made a mistake that made it impossible for them to create Apple Car for decades. Currently, fundamental changes are underway.

In an effort to enter the automotive and mixed reality markets, Apple is taking a more hands-on approach to manufacturing development.

If you look back in history, Apple has rarely been first in the market: the Sony Walkman was born before the iPod, Palm and BlackBerry dominated the phone market before the iPhone; Microsoft had tablets before the iPad and Google as a smartwatch platform before the Apple Watch.

However, Apple’s entry into the market in all of these areas has turned everything upside down. With the iPod, Apple shocked the market with its metal and white plastic design. iPhones and iPads became popular with widescreen devices and app stores. The Apple Watch offers an advanced and interactive health sensor like a phone. In all cases, Apple is not a pioneer, but creates products that are ahead of their time.

Now, though, Apple may be facing a new challenge: Practicality. As they prepare to enter the two main areas of mixed reality devices and electric cars – the company aims to be less innovative and more practical – this is also the key criterion used by Apple. to decide whether to bring the product to market or not.

Tim Cook and even Setve Jobs have often said that Apple cares more about being the best in a field than being first. They have taken advantage of developing new interfaces and applying technologies in innovative ways. This is evident with the iPhone, which has a physical keyboard for the touch screen, and the iPad with up to 10 hours of battery life and a large screen.

However, now with new products to be expected, the company seems willing to reduce a few criteria to enter the market.

The first is a mixed reality device. The device is sure to be very advanced with its high-resolution display, series of external cameras, and a new version of iOS. Their sleek design and powerful processor set them apart from similar offerings from Meta and Sony.

However, Bloomberg reports that Apple’s mixed reality device does not have the “holy grail” of the industry: True augmented reality. Dream of having a pair of glasses that can add data and multimedia to the real world experience without frills or too distracting. Currently, this technology has not yet formed.

So Apple will replace mixed reality – a mix of augmented reality and virtual reality. Apple’s device will have virtual reality at its core but use the camera to create an experience like augmented reality.

When Apple established its foray into this market seven years ago, it hoped AR glasses could replace the iPhone because users could make outgoing and incoming calls from there.

Cook began publicizing that vision in 2016, saying that AR is superior to VR because AR “gives the ability for both of us to sit and be very clearly present.” He later criticized the VR glasses at a conference in Utah, saying that “very few people would consider it acceptable to be wrapped in something”.

But, Cook’s criticisms of VR began to subside when Apple decided to build a device that would use that same method – the accompanying headset design the CEO once deemed unacceptable.

Instead of delaying it until 2025 or so – when AR glasses might actually be possible – Apple will go the practical route and launch a temporary product that offers the best mixed reality technology available today. . And this seems to be the right decision for Apple, especially since it does not want to give up the promising hardware market to Meta.

The same story is happening with cars. When Apple set its sights on building a car in early 2010, self-driving wasn’t a major priority. The company is more focused on competing with Detroit and Tesla in terms of design, battery technology, hardware, software, and materials.

After several years of development, however, Apple executives decided that cars wouldn’t need stark differences to make them worthy of launch. Entering self-driving: Apple quickly became attached to the launch of a car that was fully self-driving and had no pedals or steering wheel.

That ambition quickly began to hurt Apple, leading to management leaving, firing employees, and restarting the project.

And other problems kept piling up. Apple postpones plans to launch fully self-driving cars. Instead, they’re creating a more traditional EV with pedals and handlebars. There will still be automatic capabilities but they will affect driving on the highway.

An Apple Car can still set itself apart from the competition with special features and links to the company’s other products. And self-driving capabilities will gradually improve and expand into new areas. Crucially, the company is no longer waiting to launch the vehicle until it reaches Level 5 – the industry’s highest self-driving tier.

Apple’s next major product area won’t change the market the way the iPod, iPhone, and iPad did. However, it is unlikely that Apple is stuck in limbo because they have been a little more realistic.

Apple delayed the launch of new cars until 2016 when it dropped self-driving technology. As mentioned, Apple’s plans for electric vehicles are subject to several other fundamental changes: Moving from fully self-driving cars to something more traditional.

Apple made the change after spending years working on the project of a fully automated car that was impossible for several decades. Along with the fundamental changes, the company has pushed back its launch plan to 2026 and is now aiming to sell cars to consumers at less than $100,000 per vehicle.

Source: Bloomberg