[mikeash]

A lot of people said exactly that. The established smartphone people were quoted as saying, approximately, this stuff is hard, and PC people aren't just going to walk in and take over.

However, just because that sentiment was wrong in 2006 doesn't mean it's wrong now.

In hindsight, what was important about smartphone isn't what the established companies thought was important. Apple's core competencies translated over extremely well to what was actually important, which turned out to be user experience, full internet access, apps, and such, rather than things like telephony and data frugality which is what the established players concentrated on.

It's possible that the same thing would play out with cars. But I'm skeptical, and I'd want to see some explanation of just what advantages Apple would have, not just "they did it before with phones."