The launch of Apple Inc.'s
What Happened: Just over a month after popular tech analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said that he has "lost all visibility" on the Apple Car project, Gurman says, "A car is still a ways out."
Initially referred to as "Project Titan," the Apple Car project was launched in 2014 to create a self-driving electric car.
While Kuo earlier said that if Cupertino decides not to adopt an acquisition strategy to enter the automotive market, Apple Car may not enter mass production "within the next years," Gurmam said, "The company doesn't expect to ship anything until later in the decade."
Previously, Loup Funds' co-founder Gene Munster said that the odds of Apple Car being available in the market by 2026 is 50/50.
The analyst compared the development period of the iPad, iPhone, and iPad, which took six years, three years, and one-and-half years, respectively; the tech giant's ambitious self-driving car has been in the works for nine years now.
The company's mixed-reality headset also has been in the works for about six years. Apple launched its first-generation mixed-reality headset Vision Pro earlier this year and plans to make it available for consumers in early 2024.
Why It's Important: In March last year, Kuo reported that the Apple Car team had been dissolved for some time, and the mass marketing of the car by 2025 was in danger.
Last year, Munster also noted that while Apple Car has been Cupertino's longest-investment period of any product yet, it has only consumed 4% of the tech giant's total R&D spend in 2022.
He emphasized that Apple's strategy could be to spend just enough money to move the project forward without affecting the company's profit margins.
