Experts have long been wondering what US company Tesla actually is. Is it an electric-vehicle maker or an IT company? Tesla and Elon Musk have been increasingly compared to American manufacturer of personal and tablet computers Apple and its legendary founder Steve Jobs. Are these comparisons fair?
Back in 2011, Elon Musk was an ambitious engineer who dreamed of creating a car running on electricity. He was eager to save humanity and the world from global warming. The same could be said about Apple that introduced the first personal computer in the 1980s. In this regard, Tesla is a true successor to Apple. The company has applied breakthrough technologies and brought something new to the world. That is why investors “view Tesla in a way they viewed Apple 20 years ago”, Morgan Stanley analyst Katy Huberty said.
In December last year, Apple announced that it would start producing self-driving electric cars in 2024. In response to this news, Elon Musk revealed in a tweet that during the company's 'darkest days' of Model 3 production, he once offered Tim Cook to acquire Tesla for a tenth of its current value, but Apple’s CEO refused to attend a meeting. Notably, at the time of proposal, the market value of Tesla was above $600 billion. It turns out that Tim Cook missed an opportunity to buy the company worth a mere $60 billion. It is still unknown whether it was true or not as the Apple management declined to comment on Musk's remarks.
Some argue that the secret to Tesla and Apple’s success lies in fanaticism and allegiance of сustomers to them. The companies create not just phones and cars but an illusion of belonging to a certain standard of living. Initially, the manufacturers were focused exclusively on the premium market segment. Later, they managed to drive most of the competitors out of business.
Musk, like Jobs, spends a lot of time developing individual parts and products as a whole. The founders of both companies' focused attention to detail is worthy of note. Thus, Steve Jobs had the reputation of a hot-tempered person. Driven by his passion for perfection and making elegant products, he repeatedly disrupted new product launches at the very last moment in order to make some changes. Elon Musk also tends to make spontaneous decisions motivated by the desire to achieve the best results. One day, he came up with the idea of replacing sun visors in a big batch of electric vehicles which had already rolled off the production line.
Given such similarities between the companies’ concepts and their founders, experts often compare their fates. Market Watch analyst Vitaly Katsnelson wonders what will happen to Tesla in case Elon Musk suddenly leaves the company for some reason like Steve Jobs did. After he resigned as chairman of Apple Computer in 1985, the company's business affairs got worse. In this regard, the following question arises: will Tesla repeat Apple's fate if it loses such a charismatic visionary leader and talented manager as Elon Musk?
