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Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, who can also be the brand new proprietor and CEO of Twitter, bashed Apple this week after claiming the corporate has threatened to take away the Twitter app from its App Store, accusing the corporate of hating “free speech.”
The Twitter app continues to be obtainable for iOS units, and there isn’t any signal that the favored social media app is at actual danger of getting booted by Apple.
The Tesla CEO’s livid tweets recall how Musk has lengthy taken pictures at Apple, and highlighted simply how a lot energy the tech juggernaut nonetheless has over the world’s richest particular person.
Meanwhile, Apple as an organization by no means engages in public trash discuss towards Musk or Tesla, and has even prevented taking veiled pictures at them, versus the frequent indirect criticisms aimed at Facebook.
Behind all of the assaults, Musk has nice admiration for Apple’s authentic founder, Steve Jobs. Musk has even begun working with Steve Jobs’ biographer, Walter Isaacson, on his personal official biography.
A one-way disagreement
Musk’s newest spate of Apple insults started final week. This week, Musk claimed in a tweet that Apple had largely stopped promoting on the Twitter platform.
He tried to impress Apple CEO Tim Cook right into a public dialogue concerning the discount in promoting on Twitter, asking him if Apple hates “free speech in America” and “what’s going on here.” Cook didn’t reply.
Apple shouldn’t be alone in decreasing its campaigns on the social media platform since Musk took over.
After Musk closed a leveraged buyout deal on Oct. 28 and appointed himself CEO, a spike of anti-Black racist and antisemitic hate speech flooded the platform, partly due to raids that had been coordinated by customers on on-line chat platform 4chan.
Musk additionally started making steep cuts to Twitter’s workforce, gutting gross sales groups, groups accountable for measuring Twitter efficiency metrics and content material moderation groups, amongst others.
Twitter has been shedding advertisers and advert income ever since, with civil rights teams and former advertisers on the platform pressuring Musk to show that his a lot smaller staff can responsibly handle content material moderation, advert campaigns, cybersecurity and extra.
Whether correct or not, Musk’s allegation that Apple has “threatened to withhold” Twitter from its App Store might resonate with different builders.
Apple is infamous for offering few particulars when notifying app makers that their apps are prone to struggling delayed updates or removing from the App Store. Responses inside Apple’s App Store Connect platform are terse, often citing a rule, however not elaborating on what particularly an app maker ought to do to repair the issue — for instance, Apple would possibly say the app has a “metadata problem” or makes use of a banned software programming interface.
Musk additionally chafes beneath Apple’s platform charges, that are between 15% and 30% of complete digital gross sales, just like the $8 Twitter Blue subscription that Musk has stated might be a significant product for the corporate. Musk stated it was a “de facto world tax” on the web earlier than he took over Twitter, however in his new position as an app proprietor, he has attacked it with rising vigor.
This week, he tweeted and deleted a meme that recommended he would reasonably “go to war” than pay 30% to Apple.
Apple earlier this week declined to touch upon the alleged menace of suspension or Apple’s advert spend with Twitter.
A protracted historical past of competitors
Tesla and Apple are neighbors within the San Francisco Bay Area, which signifies that they’ve competed for expertise for greater than a decade. Now that competitors has prolonged into Texas.
Both corporations want mechanical engineers, industrial designers, supplies science and battery specialists, and expert software program engineers.
Apple has additionally invested closely in growing its personal electrical autonomous automobile know-how. If the so-called “Apple Car” ever got here to market, Tesla and Apple could be direct opponents.
In that context, early examples of Musk tweaking Apple might be seen as pleasant rivalry.
When Tesla was nonetheless an underdog and upstart, Musk used to name Apple the “Tesla graveyard,” in response to a number of former Tesla workers who spoke with CNBC. Internally, he would encourage sad Tesla employees to go apply for a soft job at Apple.
He finally introduced this up in a public interview, saying that Apple employed individuals who had been fired from Tesla.
In 2018, dozens of former Tesla workers landed at Apple, together with some who had been laid off and others who merely jumped ship from Tesla. At that point, the EV maker’s North American PR staff advised CNBC, “Tesla is the hard path. We have 100 times less money than Apple, so of course they can afford to pay more.”
One of probably the most notable folks to modify sides was Doug Field, who began at Apple, joined Tesla after which rejoined Apple. Now he works for a extra direct Tesla competitor, Ford.
Last summer season, Musk laid out a few of his issues with the best way Apple does business on a Tesla earnings name, though he was cautious to not title the corporate at first.
He began by criticizing the quantity of cobalt, a mineral linked to human rights abuses, which Apple makes use of to make batteries in its units. In 2018, Musk pledged to get rid of Tesla’s use of cobalt in its manufacturing fully. Tesla has shifted a good portion of its autos to a kind of battery known as an LFP, or lithium iron phosphate battery. However, it has not managed to get rid of want of cobalt utterly but.
In its most up-to-date Impact Report, Tesla wrote, “we expect our absolute cobalt demand to increase over the coming years because our vehicle and cell production growth rate is forecasted to outpace the overall rate of cobalt reduction on a per cell basis.”
On the charging entrance, Tesla is experimenting with methods to present different EV drivers entry to its community. But the corporate hasn’t opened up charging on a mainstream foundation but.
Later within the earnings name, Musk criticized Apple’s “walled garden” business mannequin when answering a query about when Tesla chargers would possibly be capable of cost different automobile makes.
“I think we do want to emphasize that our goal is to support the advent of sustainable energy,” Musk stated. “It is not to create a walled garden and use that to bludgeon our competitors, which is used by some companies.”
In case anyone missed the reference to Apple’s App Store, which Apple maintains because the unique method to distribute apps to its units, Musk then faked a cough and stated, “Apple.”
Musk additionally has used Apple’s title to generate buzz. In September, when Apple introduced satellite tv for pc connectivity in its new iPhone 14 fashions (with satellites being operated by GlobalStar) Musk recommended that Apple had appeared into utilizing Starlink, which makes use of completely different know-how.
“We’ve had some promising conversations with Apple about Starlink connectivity,” Musk tweeted, complimenting the iPhone staff. Apple has by no means acknowledged any negotiations and even dialogue with SpaceX.
Cook and Musk
Have Apple CEO Tim Cook and Musk ever spoken in depth?
According to Cook, the reply is not any.
The Apple chief stated in a 2021 podcast that he has “great admiration and respect” for Tesla, however that he had by no means spoken with Elon Musk. The two had been photographed ft aside with different business leaders at a 2016 assembly with former President Donald Trump at Trump Tower.
But Musk claims that Apple declined his proposal to accumulate Tesla years in the past, when the EV maker’s market cap stood at a fraction of its present worth.
“During the darkest days of the Model 3 program, I reached out to Tim Cook to discuss the possibility of Apple acquiring Tesla (for 1/10 of our current value). He refused to take the meeting,” Musk tweeted in 2020.
Another model of the story comes from “Power Play: Tesla, Elon Musk, and the Bet of the Century,” a ebook by business journalist Tim Higgins.
Around 2016, in response to the ebook, Musk and Cook spoke about Apple doubtlessly buying Tesla. It was fighting excessive prices and points transport its Model 3 automotive on the time. Apple, with its experience in manufacturing and enormous quantities of money, would have been an ideal acquirer.
Except, in Higgins’ telling, Musk had one situation: He needed to develop into CEO of the mixed Apple-Tesla.
“F— you,” Cook stated, in response to the ebook.