innovation
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vivek wadhwa
Apple no longer makes revolutionary products. Buying Tesla could restore its once stratospheric reputation
Why Apple needs its man from Mars Vivek Wadhwa is fellow at the Arthur and Toni Rembe Rock Center for Corporate Governance at Stanford University
that have made vertical landings back on It’s not surprising that Apple has stopped Earth. And he’s now looking to render innovating. Innovation no longer happens all the subways and urban transits in the in the way they like to do things in world obsolete with his Hyperloop – a Cupertino. Consequentially, it’s now high-speed public transportation system almost a decade since Apple scored its last in which pressurized capsules ride on a breakthrough. In 2007, when the iPhone cushion of air driven by linear motors and appeared, its launch was shrouded in air compressors. Musk once told me that secrecy. Apple’s strategy is now as it was he wanted to build a space station and live then: hide your products from the world, out a happy retirement on Mars. He wasn’t release them, and have your customers joking. I expect he’ll do this. fawn about how Apple gear “just works”. I’m the proud owner of a Tesla In 2007, this strategy bore fruit. But few of Model S. You can see and feel Musk’s Apple’s competitors work this way today galactic pedigree as soon as you get behind – which is why they are now much better the wheel, because the Model S is like a than Apple at achieving breakthroughs. spaceship that rides on Contrast Apple’s land. It’s better than any conservative, Elon Musk once told Apple product: more clandestine approach to product development me that he wanted to elegant, more beautiful, and better designed. with the suck-it-andbuild a space station and Apple’s Tim Cook see style of Facebook. live out a happy retirement is a truly excellent Facebook launched on Mars. He wasn’t joking. operations executive. its virtual-reality But he is no Steve Jobs. headset Oculus in I expect he’ll do this He is not an innovator. the spring. It wasn’t Apple should buy Tesla, the finished product, use it as the core of an Apple car, and but nor was Facebook expecting it to be. appoint Musk as chief executive. Here’s the modern way: you get a product Would Musk accept? There are no to market, your early adopters buy it, guarantees. He turned down Google in then they criticize it and tell you how to 2013 when the carmaker was on the verge improve it. I’ll bet that version three of the of bankruptcy. With $20 billion of orders Oculus – due 2018 or 2019 – will invoke in the bag for its upcoming Model 3, why the holodecks on Star Trek. It will change would Musk accept now? the way we interact forever, just like the Because he knows the combination iPhone did. of him as chief executive and Cook as So what is poor, shackled Apple operations boss would be formidable, that’s supposed to do? In short, it needs a car. why. Apple’s limitless resources would I’ll be more specific. It needs a Tesla. allow him to scale up Tesla’s operations and Much evolutionary, incremental change deliver the 400,000 orders for the Model 3. is wrongly – and increasingly – billed as And, with Apple’s branding, and perfect fit innovation. But Tesla is the real deal. for in-car media and entertainments, Tesla Elon Musk, the electric car would benefit, too. company’s chief executive, is a straightSometimes true visionaries need a little up revolutionary. This is the guy that push. There are plenty of years and ideas developed a spacecraft with his other left in Musk – still a relative youngster at company, SpaceX, docked it with the just 45. Apple needs a car. And, in its own International Space Station, and returned way, Tesla needs Apple. Mars can wait. with cargo. He’s launched two rockets Q4 2016 Dialogue
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28/07/2016 13:00