Free Republic

Apple fans are already hyperventilating with excitement about how much money Apple is going to make selling cars. So let's put some numbers around that. What if Apple immediately builds a car business the size of, say, Porsche's? How much more money will Apple make? Well, Apple made about $53 billion of operating profit in the fiscal year ending in September 2014, a spectacular 28% operating profit margin on revenue of $182 billion. Porsche, meanwhile, made about $2.6 billion of operating profit, an impressive (for a carmaker) 20% operating profit margin on revenue of $14.3 billion. So if Apple sprouts...

Many Apple fans have dreamed of one day getting the chance to drive a car crafted by people behind the iPhone and the iPad. In fact, according to the New York Times, just before he died, Steve Jobs said he wanted to build an Apple car. Now Volkswagen hasteamed upwith the computermakerto deliver the next best thing until Apple decides to actually make its own. The vehicle is called the iBeetle, and while it doesn't look like a sleek iPhone-on-wheels, it does include a decidedly Apple-centric dashboard. Unveiled at this month's Shanghai Auto Show, the iBeetle features an embedded iPhone...