The stakes are high when it comes to which company will release a better version of an electric vehicle. The iPhone developer is aiming for the top but in the process of developing an electric car, Apple is being sued by A123.
Apple’s new project involves developing an electric car which should be on the market as early as 2020. The project might take a bit too much taking into consideration that other companies are also set on winning “the best electric car” title. Automaker companies such as Tesla Motors Inc. and General Motors Co. are planning on releasing an electrical vehicle each, by 2017. Both companies want their product to function for more than 200 miles one a single charge and cost less than $40,000.
Apple, the company who broke the record on profit, with $18 billion in the last quarter, now has $178 billion in cash and a few worthy projects. The company invested $6.04 billion last year in research and now the Apple CEO is pressured into returning shareholders their investments.
The company is using the same tactic it used when it entered other industries. When Apple products were first released, there were of course other music players and smartphones on the market. Apple products enter the market only when they guarantee to bring something innovative.
When looking how Tesla successfully managed to enter the car company, one understands that this is not such a difficult process.
At the same time, the process of bringing something new to the table can be long and difficult, especially when other companies plan to succeed faster, like Google Inc. for example, who has been investing in the research of autonomous vehicles since 2010.
Apple is new to the industry but with its aggressive tactic of recruiting employees from adversary companies is planning to catch up quick. But this method has its downside.
A lawsuit was filed this month due to Apple recruiting employees from the Massachusetts based company, A123 Systems LLC, known for its batteries.
Up until now, Apple hired five A123 employees, one of which is Mujeeb Ijaz, the founder of A123’s Venture Technologies division, specialized in “material research, cell product development and advanced concepts”.
Apple hired him in June when he started to provide the company with direct reports from the division he had earlier led.
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