iPhone reinvented the phone. iPhone is not just a phone. As a matter of fact, it is designed to be of much broad usage, phone being only one of its functions. iPhone is an interface between a person and the rest of the world. iPhone is a wallet, a credit card, a photo album, a camera …
So what is the next reinvention with same or bigger economy scale. I think it is car. The reinvention of car is not just about being powered by a green energy, it is about a broader function with transport being merely one of many functions. No car company is at this stage yet, from Tesla to General Motor et al. Electrical cars are focused on power sources, smart cars are only limited to driving method. No one company has yet started a revolutionary design concept such that driving is only one of the functions. Car can do a lot more!
At a conference call of a recent quarter report, CEO of Tesla motor, Elon Musk said Tesla will exceed Apple in market value in about ten years. Tesla’s market value today is $25B versus Apple over $700B, Elon Musk is looking at 30 times of current value of the company in ten years. I think it is achievable since the automobile market is much bigger than the phone market. Tesla could reinvent the car in the similar way iPhone did to the traditional phone.
Of two challenges are power source and smartness in driving. Relief of human driver from driving will create a need of other activities for the driver and passengers, therefore will create new functional requirements that the car have to meet. If auto driving become possible, car insurance has to rewrite. The insurance will have to be against the software, instead against the drivers.