Elon Musk denies SpaceX handheld device plan
Elon Musk has denied claims that his company is developing a handheld AI device that’s reported as a competitor for iPhone, condemning these as being “utterly false”.
The denial follows a recent report that the company showed investors a prototype of such a device. This was described as like an iPhone, but slimmer, and would run on Space X’s own operating system.
As reported, the device would use Musk’s own AI tech from xAI and use Qualcomm chips. The report also explained that the device was only a prototype and no name or definite release plans had been put in place.
Musk refutes all of that.
Musk has been quite forthcoming in his denial of any plans to make such a device. He said “we are not developing a phone” after a similar report in February.
That denial does leave scope for the company to be developing another kind of device, of course – and there continues to be speculation the company intends offering its own mobile phone service, likely in partnership with carriers such as Charter Communications and with use of its own Starlink satellites.
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In truth, now may not be so good a time to get into device manufacturing. Those component price increases aren’t reducing fast, and shortages of key components mean manufacturing is constrained from day one.
The degree of risk involved in introducing new products – particularly completely new ones – is far higher as a result, and while Apple may manage it with its iPhone Ultra, it’s questionable if others can create market share swiftly enough to recoup, which suggests years in which costs outweigh income.
“SpaceX has a long way to go before successfully manufacturing a consumer device at scale and competing against the leading platforms,” analysts at Vital Knowledge wrote.
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