Apple To Copy Amazon, Test Delivery of Macs, iPhones, iPads, By Drone

If ever there was a company that was full of itself, full of hubris, and fully capable of conning Wall Street with dubious technology it’s Apple, right? No. Wait. Google? Uh uh. It’s Amazon.

Yes, folks, it’s Amazon that has hoodwinked Wall Street’s herd mentality by promising that the future was right around the corner and profits were not far behind. Well, it looks as if Amazon is about to do the impossible. Deliver profits to the bank by drone. Forget those expensive stores in the Mall. Apple needs to deliver products by drone.

Tongue Planted…

You know those self-driving autonomous cars with the Google logo? That implies Google will be building self-driving cars soon. The company has trouble building Android smartphones and tablets that sell more than a few hundred at a time, so why should they be trusted to disrupt our driving habits with a driverless vehicle?

Amazon is cut of a similar cloth, but the material that doesn’t know how to make profits the way Google makes profits. Amazon’s latest attempt to pull the wool over investors in the stock is delivery drones. Drones that can deliver products to customer’s homes or office by air (as opposed to the drones the U.S. military uses to send t-e-r-r-o-r-i-s-t-s to a place from which there is no return, and from which body parts are not easily re-assembled).

Here’s how Amazon pictures the drone on a warehouse landing zone ready to receive a package and a destination.

I love the little Amazon PrimeAir logo. How cool is that? Investors should be proud. Deluded, but proud.

Drones as airborne delivery trucks have all sorts of unsolved issues.

Who is flying the drone? How big is the package? How far can the drone fly to deliver a package and still make it back to the warehouse hangar for a battery recharge? What’s to prevent someone from shooting down the drone if it gets nearby or flies over someone’s property? Or, getting shot down just for, you know, fun? And what about dogs? And rain? And wind? And other drones?

Judging by the obvious size of the Amazon PrimeAir drone (smaller than you think; much smaller), it’s likely to carry only lightweight objects that would fit into a shoebox. I’m thinking Kindles, Fire Stick, FireTV stock, Fire tablets, Fire TV, and Fire Phone. No. Scratch that last one. The box would be empty as the Fire Phone sold so many it’s ‘currently unavailable.’

…Firmly In Cheek

I’ve been writing about all things Apple for Mac360 for many years, and my extensive sources of imagination and Cupertino contact tell me that Apple has been testing drone delivery for more than a year. It’s true. You read it here first. Unless you read it somewhere else already. Or, if you don’t believe it. That works, too.

Yes, most of the Apple employee piloted drones have been flying over and around the Cupertino campus near the cafeteria, and used mostly to spy on other employees, or to deliver trays of sushi, but testing nonetheless. If there’s one thing Apple employees have it’s disposable income and that’s what you need to pilot a drone in California. Or, a credit card. Still, a padded shoebox attached to a delivery drone– a box carrying a MacBook, iPhone, or iPad– would be a welcome relief from the UPS or FedEx drones who wait outside my door until I leave before attempting a delivery.

Remember, it’s not Apple’s modus operandi to bring new technology to the fore before anyone else. Apple is disciplined and patient and waits for others to fail miserably before swooping in, cobbling together a mashup of something obvious but that no one thought of yet, take over the industry and call it an amazing, exciting magical innovation, while sucking all the profits from the industry.

But delivery drones? If ever there was a pie in the sky idea, it’s Apple delivering iPhones and iPads by airborne drone. Hey. Wait a minute. That’s the idea. Deliver pizza by drone. Apple could do this. And all you need is your iPhone, iPad, or Apple TV, and an app, and you could control the delivery drone yourself.

See? That’s gotta be the angle Apple is working on. Self-delivering drone app.