Musk : Apple "hired people we’ve fired"

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/elon-musk-apple-tesla-graveyard_5617b686e4b0dbb8000dfc9e

Some choice quotes.

"They have hired people we’ve fired," he said in an interview published Thursday by the German business newspaper Handelsblatt. "We always jokingly call Apple the 'Tesla graveyard.' If you don’t make it at Tesla, you go work at Apple. I’m not kidding."

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"Did you ever take a look at the Apple Watch?" he asked, laughing. "No, seriously: It's good that Apple is moving and investing in this direction. But cars are very complex compared to phones or smartwatches. You can’t just go to a supplier like Foxconn and say, 'Build me a car.'"

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Either Musk is speaking truthfully or (more likely) just trash talking.

This article has some interesting parallel quotes:

Palm CEO Ed Colligan said:

We’ve learned and struggled for a few years here figuring out how to make a decent phone. PC guys are not going to just figure this out. They’re not going to just walk in.

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Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said:

Right now we’re selling millions and millions and millions of phones a year, Apple is selling zero phones a year. In six months, they’ll have the most expensive phone by far ever in the marketplace and let’s see…what’s the expression? Let’s see how the competition goes.

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There are several more quotes provided, as well.

RegGuheert said:

This article has some interesting parallel quotes:

Palm CEO Ed Colligan said:

We’ve learned and struggled for a few years here figuring out how to make a decent phone. PC guys are not going to just figure this out. They’re not going to just walk in.

Click to expand...

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said:

Right now we’re selling millions and millions and millions of phones a year, Apple is selling zero phones a year. In six months, they’ll have the most expensive phone by far ever in the marketplace and let’s see…what’s the expression? Let’s see how the competition goes.

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There are several more quotes provided, as well.

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Neither of those men were what anyone would call "visionaries". And Apple has never launched a market changer without Jobs.

Musk must have forgot that apple can just go buy an automaker. They can just keep hiring the best people they need by throwing cash at it, if they decide to drop out it's not going to hurt them . They have been hiring people from all over the EV world. Musk should not talk, he has one of the few EV companies that build bad drive systems, the most reliable part of an EV. Besides it seems the apple play is a rolling and self driving iphone for a very specific task not high-end sports cars and 3 series killers.

evnow said:

Either Musk is speaking truthfully or (more likely) just trash talking.

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I imagine it's a bit of both. They're both Silicon Valley tech companies and no doubt there's been people move in both directions, and to and from dozens of other tech companies as well. Maybe he's also trying to rally his troops by creating a sense of rivalry.

But any story about him acting in any way that might be viewed as arrogant will certainly play into what many people WANT to hear.

He's backtracked, a bit: http://www.engadget.com/2015/10/08/elon-musk-apple-car-diss/

From https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/652605371857530880

elonmusk said:

Yo, I don't hate Apple. It's a great company with a lot of talented people. I love their products and I'm glad they're doing an EV.

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https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/652607370921570304

elonmusk said:

Regarding the watch, Jony & his team created a beautiful design, but the functionality isn't compelling yet. By version 3, it will be.

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Nubo said:

But any story about him acting in any way that might be viewed as arrogant will certainly play into what many people WANT to hear.

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Yes, didn't ANYONE notice that he first said that he thought it was great that Apple was heading that direction??? Just because he then goes on to note that its a big leap to go from making phones to building EV's, they all want to say he's "talking trash". What morons. It is quite apparent that Elon welcomes competition, no matter where it comes from, because he is wanting to create that pivotal moment when EV's become mainstream. He doesn't care if Tesla isn't the biggest player. Reading the comments section makes me sick. A lot of Tesla haters there repeating the same misinformation. :roll:
But, I'm also sure that he doesn't like training employees, paying them very well, and then having them poached by Apple. He has enough delivery issues without constantly retraining people.

Frankly, I believe Musk more than I believe Cook or Apple...

EVDRIVER said:

Musk must have forgot that apple can just go buy an automaker.

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Apple best be careful Tesla does not build a phone :lol:

RegGuheert said:

This article has some interesting parallel quotes:

Palm CEO Ed Colligan said:

We’ve learned and struggled for a few years here figuring out how to make a decent phone. PC guys are not going to just figure this out. They’re not going to just walk in.

Click to expand...

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said:

Right now we’re selling millions and millions and millions of phones a year, Apple is selling zero phones a year. In six months, they’ll have the most expensive phone by far ever in the marketplace and let’s see…what’s the expression? Let’s see how the competition goes.

Click to expand...

There are several more quotes provided, as well.

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these quotes mean NOTHING... there is a huge difference between groundbreaking research that Palm did verses Apple perusing the existing technology to determine what direction to take their product in.

Maybe we should compare successes with "equal" technology. Apple did try to build a phone much earlier in the game. anyone get one? well, no because it was one of the worst products EVER...

DaveinOlyWA said:

these quotes mean NOTHING... there is a huge difference between groundbreaking research that Palm did verses Apple perusing the existing technology to determine what direction to take their product in.

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I wouldn't dismiss Apple.



Perhaps we will see the same thing with cars.