By Gary S. Vasilash

“I love creating new services businesses and this is the perfect chance to do just that.

“The auto industry is undergoing an unprecedented transformation, from gas engines to electric vehicles and from human to autonomous driving.

“At the same time, the basis for differentiation is shifting from the vehicles alone to the integration of hardware, software and services. I’ll be in the middle of something truly historic and am particularly fortunate to do that at Ford, which has been democratizing automotive technology for 120 years and counting.”

That’s Peter Stern, former vice president of Services at Apple, now president of the newly formed Ford Integrated Services.

His role will be to help the automaker in its undertaking of “building sustained, always-on customer relationships and capturing new, high-margin services, subscription and other digital revenue.”

Apple’s service’s business is certainly robust.

So Ford wants to achieve the same. Thus, Stern.

(It knows how much money it can make on its hardware (e.g., F-150). There is undoubtedly a huge upside on how much it could make on connected digital products.)

It is the stuff of headlines and reportage (like this) when there are people from companies like Apple joining auto companies.

Wonder if it works going in the opposite direction?