The MacRumors Show: Former Apple Executive Mike Bell Talks AirPort, CarPlay, and More

Lucid Senior Vice President of Digital and former Apple Executive Mike Bell joins us on this week's episode of The MacRumors Show to discuss the iPhone, AirPort, Vision Pro, CarPlay, and more.


Mike worked at Apple from 1991 to 2007 and played a significant role in development of hardware products like the ‌iPhone‌, iMac, AirPort, and Apple TV, as well as software features like Boot Camp. After leaving Apple, he worked at Palm, Intel, and Rivian, and now leads digital at luxury electric automaker Lucid.

We reflect on the success of the ‌iPhone‌ since Mike's work to deliver the original model and where it stands today. We also look at Apple's Vision Pro headset and consider whether it will catch on. Mike discusses AirPort, a personal-favorite product that he led, how he feels about its discontinuation, and whether Apple is likely to return to the product line in the future.

We talk through the process and importance of integrating Apple ‌CarPlay‌ in Lucid vehicles, as well as the challenges involved in bringing new digital features to EVs. We also discuss Mike's experience of working at Apple as a senior decision-maker in the 1990s and 2000s, how the company changed in the formative period in which he was there, similarities between Lucid and Apple, and more.

Listen to The MacRumors Show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Pocket Casts, Castro, Google Podcasts, or your preferred podcasts app. You can also copy our RSS feed directly into your podcast player. Watch a video version of the show on the MacRumors YouTube channel.


If you haven't already listened to the previous episode of The MacRumors Show, catch up for our discussion about some of our favorite Apple accessories with YouTuber and content creator Sara Dietschy.

‌The MacRumors Show‌ is now on X (formerly Twitter) @macrumorsshow, so be sure to give us a follow to keep up with the podcast!

Subscribe to ‌The MacRumors Show‌ for more episodes, where we discuss some of the topical news breaking here on MacRumors, often joined by exciting guests like iJustine, Jon Rettinger, Andru Edwards, Kevin Nether, Arnold Kim, Ben Sullins, Marcus Kane, Christopher Lawley, Frank McShan, David Lewis, Tyler Stalman, Jon Prosser, Sam Kohl, Quinn Nelson, John Gruber, Federico Viticci, Luke Miani, Thomas Frank, Jonathan Morrison, Ross Young, Ian Zelbo, and Rene Ritchie. You can also head over to The MacRumors Show forum thread to engage with us directly. Remember to rate and review the show, and let us know what subjects you would like the podcast to cover in the future.

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Top Rated Comments

erikkfi Avatar
23 months ago
For those who would care about this sort of thing: Saudi Arabia's government owns about 60% of Lucid.
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)
spcopsmac21 Avatar
23 months ago
I miss the Apple airport with built in hard drives. I still use one that I’ve modded 8TB of NVME SSDs into. And it works great over my Linux network with file sharing.
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
citysnaps Avatar
23 months ago
That was an outstanding and fascinating interview! Hat-tip to Dan and Hartley. And to Mike Bell. Living in the SF Bay Area it's tempting to visit the Lucid showroom and look at their cars.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
sfkeepay Avatar
23 months ago
I use a gutted, inverted, last-gen airport, mounted on a wall, as a pen holder. Still makes me wistful sometimes. SO pathetic, I know.
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)
hyperactiv8 Avatar
23 months ago
This was definitely of the most boring episodes to date. I guess it is great if you are into EVs. However, this podcast had very little to do with Apple. It was ten minutes of the guest's history with Apple and then a 25 minute sales pitch for why Lucid is the greatest EV car ever. I look forward to next week's episode.
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)
einsteinbqat Avatar
23 months ago
Interesting interview! You guys need more of that!

Happy that @Hartley kept his new hairdo ?
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)