Elon Musk Has The Opportunity To Create A Tesla Smartphone, But Reluctant To Fall Into The Mobile Market

Illustration of Tesla phones from Elon Musk (photo; x @ben_kew)

JAKARTA - Speculation about Tesla that will make the phone come back after Tesla CEO Elon Musk gave his latest statement. In a series of meetings in October 2024 in Pennsylvania, which was also part of his support for Donald Trump's candidacy for US president Musk clearly stated that the idea of making a cellphone was not something of interest to him.

"Thinking about making a phone makes me want to turn off," Musk said at a meeting held on October 18, 2024. "But if we have to make it, we will make it, but we hope we don't have to."

The reason behind Tesla's potential for making phones is Musk's concern about the dominance of tech giants like Apple and Google, particularly regarding the management of app stores and privacy policies which he considers too strict. Musk criticized Apple for allegedly integrating "AI spyware" on its devices, calling this a user privacy threat.

Companies like Apple and Google must be careful not to dominate app stores and software too much, or they will create opportunities for new competitors, Musk said. He also indicated that if Apple continued with the plan, Tesla might feel compelled to launch phones that could be an alternative.

Speculation about Tesla has made this phone stick out before. In November 2023, during an event held by the New York Times, Musk said, "If there really was an important need to make a phone, I would make it, but now I already have a lot to do."

What do you think of this design for the Tesla TPhone?

Full Starlink capabilities. You can also call your car to pick you up from anywhere with FSD. pic.twitter.com/2K5NUu7BS2

— Not Elon Musk (@iamnot_elon) September 22, 2024

What do you think of this design for the Tesla TPhone?

Full Starlink capabilities. You can also call your car to pick you up from anywhere with FSD. pic.twitter.com/2K5NU7BS2

The issue caught up again in June 2024, when Apple announced the launch of "Apple Intelligence", which Musk considers a move that could potentially strengthen what it calls "AI spyware".

In an upload on X (previously known as Twitter), Musk responded to a user's question suggesting that he create a "Grok phone", a mobile phone with an integrated AI chatbot Grok. Grok itself is an AI-based chatbot used by platform X.

Nevertheless, Musk also faces criticism because his own X platform uses user data as material to train Grok chatbots, outside Europe, unless users explicitly choose not to participate. This makes some people think that Musk can get caught up in a situation he considers a hypocritic.

Musk even threatened to ban the use of all Apple devices within his company if Apple continued to carry out the integration plan. "Stop this spyware or all Apple devices will be banned in my companies," Musk wrote to X in response to Apple CEO Tim Cook's upload of Apple Intelligence.

Although the discourse about Tesla or X phones is often considered merely part of Musk's rhetoric, which is known to be full of sensations, not a few tech enthusiasts hope this comes true. However, there are many challenges to face if Tesla actually decides to produce mobile phones.

If a phone with the Tesla or X brand is actually created, it will most likely use the AOSP (Android Open Source Project) framework, which is the basic version of Android without full support from Google services such as Google Play Store and other core applications. The use of AOSP could mean that Tesla should build an app ecosystem, core software for email, web browsing, and others itself.

However, losing Google features, which is Android's main strength, can be a big obstacle for Tesla phones. This reminds Huawei's mobile phone failure case, which was forced to switch to AOSP after sanctions from the US blocked their access to Google services, making it difficult to compete in the global market.

There is also a lesson from the failure of the Amazon Fire Phone launched in 2014. Although Amazon already has experience creating Android-based tablets, the phone failed to attract market interest and sold only 35,000 units. One of the main causes is the lack of applications on Amazon Appstore, which to this day is still a weakness for Amazon products.

In addition, the cost of marketing mobile phones is also huge. Apple and Samsung spend billions of dollars annually just to promote their devices. While Musk, since acquiring X, has cut most of its staff by 80% to reduce operating costs.

With all these challenges, it's no surprise that Musk seems very hesitant to actually make a phone, even though the pressure from Apple and Google dominance can be a factor that forces him to take that step.

Musk himself claims to have many other projects to watch out for, ranging from developing Tesla electric cars, space exploration with SpaceX, to developing AI on platform X.

Although fans really want Tesla's mobile products, Musk seems to be continuing to try to avoid this project unless market conditions and technology dominance really force him to step in that direction.