Apple and BMW


Reuters:

Peter Schwarzenbauer, BMW's management board member in charge of the Mini brand as well as digital services declined to comment on possible talks with Apple in an interview earlier this year.

But he said: "Two worlds are colliding here. Our world, focused on hardware and our experience in making complex products, and the world of information technology which is intruding more and more into our life."

The winners will be those companies that understand how to build intelligent hardware, he said, adding it made sense for carmakers and tech firms to cooperate more closely.

"We need to get away from the idea that it will be either us or them ... We cannot offer clients the perfect experience without help from one of these technology companies," Schwarzenbauer said. That dialogue is well underway, he stressed.

Some are speculating that Apple is looking for a partnership that leads to BMW supplying an Apple-branded vehicle or at least the base of what would be an Apple car.

Reading those direct quotes, however, I'm left thinking it could be something closer to a licensing deal where Apple supplies a piece of the puzzle for car makers, not the other way around.

On the flip side, Apple took a similar approach to cell phones when it partnered with Motorola. Apple learned a lot about cell phones, even though the product was a bad flop.