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Originally Posted by TD
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A strategic partnership makes some medium term sense. It gets Apple into the car business without having to actually learn how to make cars, and it gets Tesla a lot of software and marketing prowess (and access to a huge new retail channel). It also would allow them to stop poaching engineers from one another.
In the longer term? Eh, I don't know. First, remember Apple's first foray into the mobile phone world, the ROKR? I suspect that Apple would in the long run prefer to be in control of the hardware design. Since the rumors of the iCar have started swirling around, it's struck me as a very interesting possibility that Apple would apply its "Designed in California, Built in China" model to the automotive world. There are plenty of carmakers in China that could be enlisted to help, and the automotive space is ripe for a shakeup like that, just like the mobile device space. That's why the bleating from Dan Akerson warning Apple not to get into manufacturing never made sense to me--if anyone in the world knows how to outsource manufacturing, it's Apple.
Second, on Tesla's side, I can't imagine a megalomaniac like Musk taking a back seat to *anyone,* whether it's Tim Cook or Jonny Ive or Jesus. Inviting input from Apple on significant design decisions sounds like a disaster waiting to happen.
On the other hand...
One of the knocks against Apple post-Jobs has been questions about whether it can come up with visionary products the way that it used to. There's no doubt that Musk is a first-class visionary. A "strategic collaboration" might have intriguing benefits for Apple beyond simply getting into the automotive sector.