Perhaps a little harsh to state that Apple under-delivers, but you get the idea. On September 15th CEO Tim Cook will announce the latests Apple products. The company’s website headlined “Join us from Apple Park. September 15, 2020, at 10 a.m. PDT” earlier this morning. Fans are excited and can’t wait. Realists, however, remain skeptical. Another iPhone with a better camera? Another iPad with a slick design? Another Apple Watch with even more features? Another Macbook with a faster processor? Come on Apple, where is the next big thing?!

In the Steve Jobs era Apple truly disrupted multiple industries, with the music industry being the most prevalent one. Later came the first smartphone (iPhone), the first tablet (iPad), an efficient and well-functioning operating system that allowed all devices to be synced to each other, and the way game and app developers worked changed immensely. But where is the next big step now that Mr. Apple is no longer around? Under Tim Cook apple introduced the Apple Watch and the Airpots, implemented some incremental changes to existing products, shifted more towards offering services in branches such as healthcare, retail, and photography. Though it can be argued that these are smart moves of Apple, and that the company is slowly becoming a stable, market-leading company, many seem to be waiting for the NEXT BIG THING. Year after year Apple over-promises with appealing invitations for their live events, but when push comes to shove they somewhat under-deliver in the sense that their existing products simply just experience an upgrade.

Exactly this is expected to happen on September 15th. Though September is the month of the new iPhone, this year’s event is expected to focus on new iPad and Apple Watch upgrades as iPhone production fell short due to the current health crisis. But even then, the new phones are forecasted to be presented to the world in october and rumors have it that screen sizes will be a bit bigger, screen reaction time will be even faster than it is now, and the quality of the camera will be better than ever before. But this has been the standard upgrades over the past years. Are you going to be telling your friends that you’ve finally bought the iPhone 32 with an even better camera in 20 years time? Or will Apple find the courage to take a big leap and be a front-runner on all of its competitors, like it once was? I truly hope so. Seeing the innovations Samsung is introducing, as well as the involvement of other tech giants like Amazon and Facebook in more and more industries, I can only hope Apple to do the same in the near future.

What are your thoughts? Do you feel the same way? Are you also waiting for Apple’s NEXT BIG THING? Or will it never happen and will we always remember Apple as the company that disrupted the music industry in the early 2000s with iTunes and the iPod? iTunes no longer exists and the iPod hasn’t seen an upgrade in a while now. Just let thank thought sink in.

Over and over again Tesla appears to draw our attention. We know the company for its cars, rechargeable batteries, giga factories, and its Chairman: Elon Musk. But who knows Tesla for their car insurance? In September last year (2019), Tesla introduced the idea of Tesla Insurance. At first, it appears to be a weird thought. However, the more you think about it the more it appears to make sense. The existing insurance industry is bound to be disrupted by a tech company, as has been the case in multiple other domains. As large insurance incumbents focus on either introducing new technologies to their existing business models (i.e. blockchain, IoT applications, and machine learning processing), or simply believe that they cannot compete with a tech company because they struggle to be as innovative or agile.

This insecurity of large incumbents or inability to adapt to change paves the road for tech companies like Tesla to ‘interrupt’. As a matter of fact, Tesla cars are driving data collectors, and considering the fact that data is the only ‘raw material’ that is growing in volume, I believe it is critical for companies to not only collect the data, but to also actually use it in order to create and develop new business opportunities. Tesla is doing just so by slowly offering insurance premiums for their drivers. Why? Because traditional insurers are charging extremely high premiums to current Tesla drivers, slowly pulling them away from Tesla and steering towards driving other cars that generate lower premiums. Tesla is still seen as a ‘high risk’ car. With every accident that occurs in a Tesla, the company can access all the data about the behavior of the driver. Essentially, insurance offered by Tesla itself will stimulate drivers to drive more carefully and be more sensibly on the road. Moreover, the insurance product is more convenient in the sense that no external insurance parties are involved. Additionally, Tesla insurance will encourage drivers to drive at certain times of the day with the aim to lower their risks and thus lower their insurance premiums. Parallel to this, it can perhaps play an important role in splitting up rush hour traffics and reroute drivers to avoid busy areas.

I personally believe Tesla Insurance is a win in many different ways. Firstly, it eliminates external parties (i.e. insurance companies) from being involved, perhaps resulting in a more pleasant customer experience. Secondly, a Tesla driver is more likely to pay a lower insurance premium if it is coming straight from Tesla. Thirdly, Tesla drivers are likely to drive safer and more carefully, knowing that their driving behavior influences their insurance premium price. Fourthly, insurance incumbents no longer block the road to innovative solutions and real-time data can drive the world of insurance. Many advantages if you ask me. Looking on the flip side, how open will individual Tesla drivers be and want to be with regard to their personal information? Unless Tesla is wiling to investigate and invest in edge computing (which would essentially allow data processing to be done on and within each individual car), then personal data won’t have to be sent to a central server and individuals might be more open to the idea of Tesla accessing every single bit of personal information. I think it could have a very interesting twist in the near future. What are your thoughts?