Let me catch you up: After purchasing Twitter and appointing himself CEO, Elon Musk has made some โ what can generously be called โ controversial changes to the site and its rules. He aims to make Twitter a place where his ideas of free speech can be allowed, which has ultimately resulted in providing โamnestyโ to previously banned accounts from white supremacists, conspiracy theorists, and other people that were in violation of Twitterโs old terms of service.
Musk claimed in a recent Tweet that Apple has โthreatened to withhold Twitter from its App Storeโ but didnโt tell him why. The Twitter CEO also claims that Apple has โmostly stopped advertisingโ on the site but also canโt seem to figure out why. Apparently, the worldโs richest man is unable to understand why a company like Apple would want to take some cautionary steps away from the gasoline heโs pouring on Twitter.
Responding to a Tweet from podcaster Liz Wheeler, Musk said that if Apple and Google were to remove Twitter from their app stores, heโdโฆmake an โalternate phone.โ There is no shortage of comments under his Tweet egging him on, saying how thatโd be a great idea.
That would be true if, by โgreat idea,โ the commenters mean a complete disaster on just about every front. According to Wheeler, โthe man builds rockets to Mars,โ (he, specifically, does not), so โa silly little smartphone should be easy, right?โ Wrong.
A market misunderstanding
Elon Musk seems to think that Apple and Google have a โduopolyโ over the smartphone market. While the two companies do control a lot of the industry, theyโre far from the only major companies making successful smartphones. Samsung, Tecno, Huawei, Motorola, Oppo, OnePlus, and plenty of others are making some of the worldโs most popular devices. However, they simply havenโt broken through in the U.S. and Europe (with Samsung as an exception) like Apple and Google have. In Asia and Africa, however, itโs a completely different story.
As a basic principle, Musk is coming from a place of misunderstanding as a result of being only partially informed about the smartphone industry, a place he seems pretty comfortable coming from. Simply put, Elon Muskโs potential future
Based on his underwhelming success in a good portion of the companies that he owns โ like the internal reports of Twitterโs potential impending bankruptcy, the Boring Companyโs overall lack of results, and Neuralinkโs ridiculous proposed $10 million implant surgeryย โ thereโs no real precedent that a phone made by a company Musk owns would be successful. Obviously, Teslaโs success is the exception to that, but Tesla seems to operate the best outside of Muskโs influence. Musk frequently overpromises with all of his businesses, Tesla included, which generally makes the company look bad and like it’s at the whim of a child whoโs spitballing ideas at all times.
Illogical logistics
Muskโs one good point is that Apple and Google have something of a chokehold on the app store market on iOS and Android. If they were to take Twitter off their platforms, the app would likely die a quick death as most users would jump ship to the plethora of other social media apps on the stores.
If that were to happen, Musk would allegedly make some company start working on an โalternative smartphoneโ that would boast having Twitter on it as a major feature. At that point, however, Twitter would be completely dead in the water โ save for its browser users made up of stubborn Elon Musk fans โ so it would hardly be a selling point that would reach a general audience who have already moved on to new apps.
On top of all that, the Elon/Tesla phone would still need to compete with the rest of the smartphone market to be successful โ and to make the several-years-long and multi-million-dollar process of making a new phone (complete with a brand new operating system and app store) worth it. There have been plenty of
And that’s for a phone still running Android with Play Store access! Microsoft tried charting its own course with Windows Phone years ago, but that project ultimately failed after less than 10 years. If Microsoft couldn’t do it, what reason is there to think Musk could?
It would be a major financial ask for Musk to request his fans to ditch their iPhones, Pixels, and Galaxys to buy his new smartphone.
While Musk has an extraordinarily dedicated core group of fans, they almost certainly arenโt enough to support a newcomer to the mobile industry โ and especially not one that rivals Apple and Google. Given how prominently established both companies are in the U.S. market, it would be a major financial ask for Musk to request his fans to ditch their iPhones, Pixels, and Galaxys to buy his new smartphone. And one that would potentially be at risk of lighting itself on fire.
Elon Musk is constantly making promises that sound good on paper to his fans. But these promises often never happen. He promised more than 10 years ago that weโd have humans walking on Mars at this point which, last I checked, still hasnโt happened. Similarly, I wouldn’t be surprised if this fabled Tesla Phone is more smoke and mirrors โ and neither should you.
Currently, Musk seems a little tied up losing money with Twitter, so it feels unlikely that heโd jump headfirst into the smartphone industry, even if Apple and Google were to take it off their app stores. It seems like a much easier and cheaper solution would be to simply follow the companiesโ app store rules regarding hate speech and adult content. But what do I know? I didnโt get forced to buy Twitter, Elon Musk did.
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