Billionaire Elon Musk praised the iPhone 15 for taking beautiful photos and said he would buy one even though he previously criticized Apple for its lack of innovation.
Over the weekend, Apple CEO Tim Cook posted photos with two famous photographers Stephen Wilkes and Reuben Wu. In it, all three look at works taken with iPhone 15 Pro Max. “The photos bring to life breathtaking vistas, from the summer beauty of Rhode Island to the deserts of Utah,” Cook said. His post attracted nearly a million views and 7.7 thousand likes on X.
Among nearly 400 comments, there was a special response from Elon Musk. “The beauty of the images and videos recorded by the iPhone is amazing,” the American billionaire said. Immediately, hundreds of people retweeted Tesla CEO’s comment. Some questioned why Musk didn’t create his own Xphone. Another account even pointed out that the iPhone is distorting the creativity of X users by allowing any video to be downloaded, while on Android or the website, users can only retweet.
Neither Musk nor Cook commented at the time.
A day later, when Apple CEO posted a photo of the iPhone 15 for sale globally, billionaire Musk continued to say: “I will buy one.” This time, his response attracted 362 thousand views, nearly 4.5 thousand likes and more than 500 comments, accounting for half of the comments on Cook’s article. Meanwhile, last month, when the iPhone had not yet been launched, Musk posted a post mocking Apple for not doing anything innovative by “only upgrading the camera on the iPhone 15 to be 10% better”.
One person joked: “I just ordered an iPhone 15 Pro and it was delivered to my door after 3 hours, when can Tesla do that?”. Some humorously suggest that Musk may want to buy Apple, not an iPhone. Others recalled Musk’s statement last November when he intended to produce smartphones to defeat Apple.
Elon Musk with an iPhone without a case at Tesla’s event in Texas in August 2022. Photo: Reuters
Elon Musk and Tim Cook are said to have a “face-to-face but not content” relationship. Musk has repeatedly criticized Apple, especially about the App Store. “If Apple competes with the whole world, the whole world will be against them, this is not a wise scenario,” Tesla CEO wrote on his personal page in June about the power of the App Store. He emphasized that Apple’s 30% commission fee is too large and seriously affects content creators on X.
CEO Tim Cook did not respond. Apple once cut ads on Twitter, forcing Musk to arrange negotiations with Cook. The advertising contract was later resumed, but Musk still had to pay fees to the App Store.
On the contrary, analysts say that when launching the iPhone 15, Cook also had to thank Musk when the advertising campaigns on X were still effective. Recently, CBS News asked why Apple still chooses to advertise on X, despite the platform having many controversial issues. Tim Cook replied: “This is also what I ask myself. Personally, I think Twitter is an important asset. I like to see it as a place for speech. However, there are many things about it that I don’t like.” “.
Tensions between Musk and Cook are calming down, but analysts say that peace between the two billionaires is unlikely to last because of simmering conflicts related to costs and Musk’s super app X ambitions.
