In a note to investors, Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster has said that Apple’s surprise $1 billion investment in China’s leading ride-share firm, Didi Chuxing, could considerably help the Cupertino firm with its secretive car project.
Apple CEO Tim Cook has said that his company has made this investment in order to, among other reasons, “learn more about certain segments of the Chinese market”. Munster has said, in the note referred to by AppleInsider, that Apple’s interest in China helps to explain the move, which could also assist Apple in sparking a whole new revolution…
Munster has drawn particular attention to the potential of ride-sharing services like Didi’s, observing that a future of autonomous vehicles – which Apple evidently could become heavily involved in – could allow such services to reap greater profits than the conventional car-selling business model.
It’s impossible to be uncertain how Apple’s partnership with Didi will pan out over the coming years. However, Munster has suggested that, if Apple succeeds in pairing an autonomous taxi service software platform with an intuitive hardware system made for consumer cars, the result could be the company’s biggest hit since the iPhone.
