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Why Elon Musk Bought Twitter V3: The Tesla Phone Wrinkle

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In a bizarre twist Elon tweets a “threat” to sell phones if Apple or Google ban Twitter from App stores

This article is the third in a series that was never intended to be one. The question of why, other than lack of impulse control and way too much money, Elon Musk would buy Twitter and take it over himself is still unknown. Our first two articles chronicled two possible motivations, each put forth by someone claiming to have inside information. This story is based on Elon Musk’s direct reply to a tweet.

With Twitter getting more dangerous daily, if you are an advertiser or stake your reputation on the content not being toxic (good luck!), and now speculation is mounting that Apple and/or Google might ban downloads for the app.

Elon Musk actually responded to these thoughts with a tweet saying, “…yes, if there there’s no other choice, I will make an alternative phone.”

Oddly, this idea has been around a long time as a sort of fake news thread – various YouTubers have a continuous output of made-up stories about Elon Musk, Tesla and SpaceX. One of the most circulated is one claiming that there is already a solar-powered, Starlink connected phone from Tesla, which some claim is called the “Model Pi”.

Spoofs that become real?

There are many, many reasons, beyond the fact that the whole thing was a spoof, that make it very unlikely that this could ever happen. It’s true that the various capabilities that would be needed to make an iPhone like product are generally within the scope of what Tesla already does.

Manufacturing, supply chains, software, all of these are within the general scope of what Tesla has done very well up until now. It is, on the other hand, more than a bit crazy to think that, literally overnight, a new product could overtake or even compete with the incredibly mature capabilities of the iPhone or a top Android unit.

The iPhone has been evolving for fifteen years and the resources that Apple brings to bear in improving it are not small. The spoof version invents a few bombshell features such as built in crypto mining (presumably where the name “Pi” comes from ), Solar charging, Starlink internet, and others to ad believability to the joke.

Even if these features were available (crypto less of a incentive now lol) it’s extremely unlikely that a large number of people would jump on the trend with so many other features delayed (Cybertruck, anyone?).

The genius is that people think that Elon Musk can make the impossible happen

Getting away from the negative, what Tesla has accomplished in changing perception of EVs from a dead on the shelf product, to one that has forced the entire automotive industry to adopt a similar path is amazing.

And, even at Twitter, it is possible that, after a lot of pain and tumult there could be a new Twitter that is no worse that the pre-Musk version. It could even be bigger and, eventually, not a cesspool.

One thing that is abundantly clear, however, is that the ongoing drama will continue and maybe even accelerate. Watch this space for the next chapter.

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