Asymco

Marshall McLuhan once quipped that when a technology becomes obsolete, it becomes an art form … Old technologies (particularly media technologies, e.g, vinyl music, analogue photography) do not fade away, he said, but find new life in new configurations.

Perhaps the Christensen Institute could follow-up, and take a look at when obsolete technologies, like the combustion engine, not only becomes an art form (collected by passionate collectors), but a sport form and a new market.

When you think back to the beginning of the car industry in the early part of the last century, Did the end of the horse-and-wagon doom horse-racing as a sport? … horse racing is alive and thriving still, 100 years on … and when Henry Ford’s first Model T’s appeared in the early 1900’s, harness-horse racing actually seems to have come alive as a sport and a new market.

… which brings me to Apple and last months rumours of a partnership with Formula One (F1) … Deadlines seem to be fast approaching though, with new rumours that cable magnate John Malone’s Liberty Global is one of the latest participating bidders (again), along with British broadcaster Sky and Discovery Communications …

Bernie Ecclestone, the chief executive of Formula 1 created an industry and pushed new technologies. In the late 1970’s he pioneered the sale of the car racing sport’s lucrative television rights. But insiders say Bernie has fallen behind the times.

The sport has huge unrealized potential, they say. “Live sporting events are incredibly popular and extremely powerful public events” … Formula 1 is one of only three global sporting events, the World Cup and the Olympics … and now that safety has improved so dramatically they are crying out for F1 to be made into a family sport, a complete entertainment event with potential both on and off the track.

Don’t you think Apple is ideally positioned to achieve this growth? … And bring together advanced car technologies. (The Grand Prix is an important testing ground for new car parts and technologies at the extreme).

Apple could also expand the Grand Prix to other parts of the world such as Indonesia (pop. 260 million) and Africa; it could create family events off the race track (embracing augmented reality), and in the process open up whole new markets for other sports and family events, including live fashion events, international festivals and exhibitions (especially those experiences that can’t accommodate the crowds, like Christo’s spectacular Floating Piers event in Italy last month) … all could be showcased live to the world from Apple’s AugmentedTV.

Still, why would a technology company like Apple partner with F1 and risk confusing its brand with a form of entertainment that features an archaic fuel burning technology, and 1000hp hyper cars racing along purpose-built circuits and closed city streets … hyper cars are hardly anyone’s idea of a transformative AppleCar.

But for the millions of Apple’s early adopters, and perhaps including a new wave of boys and men who love car racing, the thrill of Apple’s involvement with the Grand Prix would be intoxicating, especially when they can follow the advances in Apple’s car technologies in such an action-packed competitive environment.

… as for us girls, especially those of us who don’t “get it”, the noise and frenzy of car racing … be assured we won’t feel left out of the furor over Formula 1.

We will patiently wait for the AppleCar with the confidence of knowing that ultimately its real transformative value, the real vehicle that people will actually buy or subscribe to, will not lie in its power, but in what creative, entrepreneurial people make of it … it will be a mobile space (another canvas), designed and engineered to be adaptable for multiple commercial and private uses.