Apple is sitting on a quite a little of hard currency , and often uses this money to elaborate its business by acquire others . Sometimes , it ’s a consumer - confront product or serve . Texturemorphed into Apple News+.Workflowled to the Shortcuts app . Beatsstill crap headphones under its own brand name , but the Beats music help fundamentally became Apple Music .
Other time it ’s a comparatively unheard of applied science company . The acquisition of PrimeSense lead story to the TrueDepth module for Face ID and Animoji .
When the pundits talk about who Apple should buy next , they ordinarily get it all wrong . Top proposition include Netflix or Disney , because Apple wants to play in streaming video production and subscription services . Or Tesla , because we all know Apple is working on self - drive car technology and some assume that it will somedaymake a car . Spotify appears on a band of these lists , because it is Apple Music ’s heavy competitor .
Buying Netflix of Disney would cost many times more than Apple just buying its own original content.
These are all boneheaded idea . They give Apple something it can easy compete without , or saddle it with massive baggage , or in the case of Tesla , it would launch the company into a massive business that iswildlydifferent from anything it has ever done before and pregnant with peril .
Apple should buy these three companies instead : Yelp , Peloton , and Dark Sky .
What’s wrong with Netflix, Disney, or Spotify?
Buying Netflix would give Apple a bountiful content distribution meshing and vast production pipeline with tons of shows . But Apple doesn’twantto be the Divine of adult - oriented shows with sex and violence , so many of Netflix ’s hit originals would n’t correspond with the company ethos at all .
Netflix ’s other fully grown asset is a huge outside depicted object delivery meshing . Apple already has one , which it uses to distribute O updates , App Store leverage , iTunes movie and TV shows , and Apple Music all over the macrocosm . candidly , for the astronomic cost of Netflix , Apple could just buy its own library of exclusive mental object from a bevy of top - tier natural endowment and self-governing production companies , giving it over control and exactly the form of message it wants . Which is exactly what it ’s doing withApple TV+ .
Buying Netflix of Disney would cost many meter more than Apple just buying its own original content .
Buying Netflix of Disney would cost many times more than Apple just buying its own original content.
The same is true of Disney , only more so . Disney would give Appletonsof groovy brands , including all those Disney classics , Star Wars , Marvel , Pixar , and more . But it would charge Apple with evenmorestuff the company really has no interest in , like theme park , broadcast and cable television service TV networks , and theatrical product . As with Netflix , Apple would have to divest itself of lots of attribute and brands it would almost sure enough rather not be the source of , likeThe Family Guy .
Apple Music is vie fine with Spotify . Apple does n’t need to grease one’s palms the company if it already has it on the ropes .
Spotify may be a more reasonably - sized purchase , but it ’s completely unneeded . Apple Music is growing at a rapid clip , and has already surpassed Spotify in pay up subscription in the U.S. In the new war to seize podcast listeners , Apple is already top pawl . There ’s nothingwrong with Apple Musicthat Apple does n’t already have all the tools to fix , and buying Spotify would n’t help . All it would do is eliminate a challenger that it ’s already doing a fine job of transcend up .
Apple Music is competing fine with Spotify. Apple doesn’t need to buy the company if it already has it on the ropes.
Why Apple shouldn’t buy Tesla
I find the obsession with Apple developing , fabrication , and selling an “ Apple Car ” particularly entrancing . It ’s really sort of a bonkers idea .
Apple has distinctly been working on ego - driving gondola technology ( under the codename Project Titan ) , but it has shown no moves toward actuallybuilding and sellingone .
Think of what it take away to be even a pocket-size - sized car company ( making around 100,000 cars per calendar month ) . That mostly means several manufactory employing tens of thousands of workers . Union drama . external trade and duty fights on a whole other scale ( and in a whole other industry ) than any in which Apple presently function .
Maps is improving, but it still relies on Yelp for very important data.
All to be a cable car company a fraction of the size of Ford or GM . Apple , the company that currentlydoesn’t even invent its own core products , is going to take on all that ?
It makes sense for Apple to develop self - drive car engineering science , because it ’s a good software mathematical product to trade to other gondola manufacturer . It might even partner with a machine maker to sell some sorting of Apple - branded auto in which to debut the technology . Even if Apple never does any of that , self - driving railcar research is a machine learning and AI challenge that helps the company germinate core engineering that it can use in Lot of its other products , from picture taking to Maps .
But buy a company thatmakes cars ? peculiarly one who is barely crawl out of a decade of fiscal trouble and Brobdingnagian exit ? One that also owns a solar panel fabrication and installment company?Crazy .
If Apple designed exercise equipment, the Peloton bike and treadmill are exactly what they’d look like.
Yelp solves one of Apple’s biggest problems
Apple Maps has a job . Its quality is n’t good enough , and it swear on far too many third - company data brokers to function . Apple of late began acomplete inspection and repair of Maps , build on a whole fresh toolset and foundation where Apple control all the information itself . It ’s a massive overhaul that will allow Maps to be more accurate and updated far more frequently .
In the modest geographical area for which the raw Maps is useable ( primarily northern California ) , it ’s already a vast improvement .
Maps is meliorate , but it still relies on Yelp for very crucial data .
But it still has one big problem . line info , including hours , paygrade , reviews , and exposure , are still cater by a third - political party company : Yelp . It ’s a core part of a modern map experience , and it ’s out of Apple ’s hands . That ’s not in go along with the new Apple Maps school of thought .
It ’s also not a very good user experience . You only get a small number of reviews and other information in the Maps app , and for anything else you have to gossip Yelp . And if you do that on your earpiece , the Yelp mobile site is going to annoy you as much as it can until you add the app .
Buying Yelp would not only give Apple full control over all the data it necessitate for a everlasting Maps experience , it would give the company an existing community of millions of user that are willing to provide update to store hours , locations , and photos . It would give Apple a top - tier client for its web - based Maps API ( Yelp currently use Google Maps , but Apple would plain swap that to its own maps ) , and a prime intragroup “ client ” to help it get chromosome mapping tools that others will need .
And last , it match into Apple ’s growing services concern . Yelp make money on ads , but also by offer a smorgasbord of digital service for the business it lists .
Peloton fits right in with Apple’s ethos
Apple ’s all about health these days , right ? Health and services .
Here we have a health product that a everyday observer might already intend is made by Apple . It ’s an expensive , high - tone musical composition of power train with an extreme emphasis on design . It ’s “ smart ” in a elbow room few competing products are , with its slick 22 - inch touchscreen and attractive interface .
If Apple designed practice equipment , the Peloton bike and treadwheel are exactly what they ’d look like .
It ’s not hard to think a slightly update Peloton bike or treadmill , rebranded Apple Bike or Apple Run . It expect almost the same , with all the great design and features Peloton customer have it away today . Its interface is slenderly more iOS - like . But most importantly , it now works in tandem with your Apple Watch and iPhone , deck data directly into your Health app , sending you workout notification , earning you natural process badge . It offer hired man - free Siri commands , and can even stream Apple Music .
Oh , and while Peloton piss slick hardware , it’sreallyall about that services revenue . The whole full point of the wheel and treadmill is to get you into a$39 per month subscription(they call it a “ rank ” to be more gymnasium - like ) that offers springy cyclosis classes and training programs . As a company focused on the marriage ceremony of high - technical school consumer ironware , wellness , and subscription services , it ’s a innate paroxysm for Apple .
Plus , Apple could pick up anonymized , non - identifiable datum from the Peloton hardware and use it to improve all its other Health engineering science .
Do n’t think Apple should make and sell example equipment ? It makes a lot more signified than make and sellingcars !
Dark Sky is a triple threat: A great app, machine learning, and services
Dark Skyis the number one weather app on the App Store for a reason . First launch as a Kickstarter political campaign back in 2011 , the app launched in 2012 with near ecumenical plaudit , and has only cause well since then .
Dark Sky uses in public available weather sources and then analyzes them using motorcar learning to create some of the most accurate and honest forecasts anywhere . It ’s precise enough that , using your phone ’s location , it can tell apart you if it ’s about to originate raining within the minute , and ping you with a notification . All this technology is enwrap up in a beautiful , simple-minded , intuitive , and minimalist app that gives you just the weather condition you take without a clustering of sensationalist reportage or crazy videos .
Apple ’s current Weather app gets its information from The Weather Channel . In hold open with Apple ’s desire to be less reliant on third - political party germ and in ascendancy of its own data point sources , Apple should attempt to end this human relationship in favor of something superior . buy Dark Sky would provide three bragging benefits to Apple .
The Dark Sky app would make a better Weather app than the iOS default — it has a more “ iOS - like ” look , is more precise , and can even kick out ready to hand “ it ’s about to rain ” notification . gold rush . Instant Weather app upgrade .
Apple is operate big into machine learning and AI . Dark Sky ’s been using that foryearsnow to solve one of the most intractable computer problems : predicting the weather condition . buy Dark Sky have Apple more than a weather app , it commence them heart ML expertness with years of practical , grocery - tested experience .
It ’s yet another service play ! Dark Skymaintains an APIfor developers that is used in loads of other atmospheric condition apps and by companies from the JPL to Microsoft . With the exercising weight of Apple behind it , this could see even more widespread use of goods and services by more top - tier companies that have a use for precise weather condition anticipation as a part of their own apps and services .
For the last several old age , Apple has bought around ten companies a year ( that we acknowledge of ) . Some acquisitions are brand we ’ve heard of , some are valuable but obscure technology companies we have not . ( Wikipedia keep a helpful list . ) As the most valuable caller in the world , Apple certainly doesn’tneedto buy Yelp , Peloton , or Dark Sky . But they are all better buys than the usual list of giant corp float about in “ Apple should use its cash to corrupt … ” articles that seem ground in a desire to see Apple getbigger , notbetter .
Apple does n’t require to bribe companies that it already contend with . It emphatically does n’t need to buy a car fellowship . It should seek to buy gratis companies that aid it accomplish its goal of verify the data it relies on , move on its power to make better products with an oculus toward privateness , safety , and wellness , and growing its service offerings .
