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Full disclosure:

My Wife, my Son and I all use DROID phones.
I own an iPod given to me as a gift. I rarely use it any more.
My wife owns an iPad as well as an MS Surface. She uses both as a middle school teacher. She and her students prefer the Surface.
I make a living developing applications that run under Windows.

The above pedigree should show that I am NOT an Apple Fan Boy.
Hopefully, showing that there are 2 Apple devices in the household should indicate that I am NOT a Knee Jerk Apple hating reactionary.

Now, here is the correct assessment of Apple's tinkering around with an automotive product:

If they are looking at licensing a control and user interface for the outwardly "electronic" aspects of the car, treating it like a "rolling computer", then they are on firm ground.

If they are thinking about actually manufacturing an automobile for sale and distribution, they are too far afield of their core competency to be effective.

The historical episode of entering the "phone" market is not a good comparison. What Apple did there was recognize that mobile phones were mutating into small hand held computers. Computers are what they did. It was not the huge stretch some people seemed to think it was.

Automobiles, on the other hand, have a CENTURY of harsh, mechanical lessons that are not part of Apple's core business experience, and it is difficult to simply "purchase" that. (Although, if any company had the ready cash to "purchase" that kind of institutional knowledge wholesale, it would currently be Apple).

Excellent post.

Apple could easily buy a car company - the reason the market cap of many car companies is relatively low is because it’s a high cap investment/low profit business.

Now why they would want to do this is another question.

The trouble with assessing Apple’s entry into the automobile market from these slew of articles ... is that Apple isn’t saying what it’s doing there. Apple never does. SO ... we (all of us) just can’t make an assessment. Maybe when we find out what Apple intends to make, we’ll be able to say something about it.

AND ... NO ... you don’t talk like the Apple-Hating Cult Group that shows up on these threads for the sake of trolling anf disrupting! Those guys are EASILY RECOGNIZABLE ... :-) ...

Automobiles, on the other hand, have a CENTURY of harsh, mechanical lessons that are not part of Apple's core business experience, and it is difficult to simply "purchase" that. (Although, if any company had the ready cash to "purchase" that kind of institutional knowledge wholesale, it would currently be Apple).

I think your assessment is correct. . . but with $178 Billion in cash and short term liquid assets on hand, Apple has the means to BUY every American Automobile company outright. . . for cash and have money left over for operating them.