It's safe to say there's no love lost between them.
Tesla (TSLA) and Apple (AAPL), who are unofficially vying for the title of most innovative company, do not like each other and the electric vehicle manufacturer does not hesitate to let it be known.
The latest round of criticism of the iPhone maker comes from where it hurts: Tesla's chief designer.
It should be remembered that Apple is often famous for the elegant designs of its products, from the iPhone to the Apple Watch, the company places particular emphasis on the look of its products.
"Oh my God, I've heard about Apple products now is like there's nothing to look forward to. Right!" Franz von Holzhausen, Tesla chief designer, told Spike's Car radio. "I feel like it's just a continuation. It's just kind of a slight refinement on the same thing. Inspirationally, it's been hard to get, you know, super motivated by what they're doing."
How about the Apple watch ?
"I haven't really found much purpose for that thing other than the fitness part but you know so be it," von Holzhausen said.
The remarks of the designer of the Tesla Model S, Model X, Model 3 and the highly anticipated Cybertruck have provoked bitter exchanges between fans of the two groups on social media.
A user, who claims to have been one of the shareholders of Apple at the time of its IPO, does not hesitate to compare Apple to Microsoft and IBM, judging that Tesla was superior in any case in terms of innovation. He says he thus invested in Tesla.
"As an AAPL IPO investor, I could not agree more emphatically. Apple is now much more like IBM and Microsoft than it is Tesla. Cook<<Jobs. That's why I sold all my Apple shares and moved into Tesla in 2020," he commented.
Another agreed and went after Cook as well: " Tim Cook is a great Manager but not a great visionary."
But others defended the Apple brand and its boss Tim Cook. One of Tim Cook's fans insisted that the CEO's performance has been good for shareholders since he took over the reins of the group.
"In all fairness to tim cook, he has added about 500mm to the value of the company each day he has been CEO."
Another highlighted Apple's product portfolio over the past five years.
"Apple Watch and AirPods were introduced in the past 5 years both of which created brand new categories and revenues streams for Apple. Also, both of these are the best selling products in their respective categories ($36 billion of revenues last year)."
There is bad blood between Apple and Tesla. The electric vehicle manufacturer, faced with production problems, had approached Apple for a wedding but the Cupertino group had slammed the door in its face.
Elon Musk still couldn't swallow this bitter pill.
Musk revealed in December 2020 that he reached out to Cook “during the darkest days for the Model 3 program” about the possibility of selling Tesla ”(for 1/10 of our current value).”
But Cook “refused to take the meeting.”
The Model 3, Tesla's entry-level vehicle, experienced bottleneck issues that delayed its production. But it has become one of the bestsellers of the electric vehicle manufacturer which delivered a record 939.172 Model 3 and Model Y in 2021.
Tesla aggregates Model 3 and Y delivery and production figures, so it's hard to say how much of the Model 3 is in the data.
