How many products can a company sstain all on its own? How many different verticals can it get into and keep going? Well, Apple has yet to put a number to that question. The company has recently created a brand new hardware team and has hired a couple of ex-Google, satellite executives to lead it.
As per a report from Bloomberg:
The iPhone maker has recruited a pair of top Google satellite executives for a new hardware team, according to people familiar with the matter. John Fenwick, who led Google’s spacecraft operations, and Michael Trela, head of satellite engineering, left Alphabet Inc.’s Google for Apple in recent weeks, the people said. They report to Greg Duffy, co-founder of camera maker Dropcam, who joined Apple earlier this year, the people said.
iSatellites maybe? No one has anything concrete upon why Apple suddenly wants to get its products out into space. However, alleged rumors state that the company is in talks with Boeing regarding the latter’s satellite project. The latter has been attempting to get a satellite project up into the air and aparently, has contacted Apple regarding its entry into the project as a partner-investor. Apple after all, is the company to go to if its 10 or 20 or 30 billion dollars in cash you are looking for.
Meanwhile, nothing is certain at this point. For all we know, Apple could shoot satellites into the air so as to improve its own mapping services.
It’s already trying to use drones to capture and update map information faster than its existing fleet of camera-and-sensor ladened minivans. And in 2015, it acquired Aether Industries LLC, which develops near-space technology such as high bandwidth radio transceivers and high-altitude balloons.
The team will reportedly work under the supervision of Apple’s SVP of hardware engineering, Dan Riccio. Well, you have been warned. Don’t panic and cry out UFOs, if you see a large, silver, half-eaten apple floating across the skies.
