As Apple Car rumors continue to make their way around the internet, former GM CEO Dan Akerson has taken it upon himself to warn Apple to stay away from automotive manufacturing and, instead, continue to focus on software infotainment efforts, namely, CarPlay. According to Bloomberg:
"I think somebody is kind of trying to cough up a hairball here," Akerson said in a telephone interview. "If I were an Apple shareholder, I wouldn't be very happy. I would be highly suspect of the long-term prospect of getting into a low-margin, heavy-manufacturing" business.
Apple's car project, reportedly code-named Titan got a lot of attention last week when accounts surfaced of "hundreds of employees" being tasked to work on electric vehicles — supposedly resembling minivans.
Akerson's comments harken back to former Palm CEO Ed Colligan, who infamously commented on Apple's prospects in the phone market:
"PC guys are not going to just figure this out. They're not going to just walk in."
And we all know how that turned out.
While Apple may or may not enter the car market, and may or may not succeed in it, at this point it seems like a mistake to simply write off anything they attempt.
