What Do The iPhone 6 And P85D Have In Common?

One is a $649 phone, the other is a $120,000 car. Despite their differences, it turns out that Apple Inc.'s AAPL iPhone 6 and Tesla Motors Inc's TSLA P85D have something in common.

When the iPhone 6 was unveiled, most analysts turned their attention to the only entirely new product at the event: Apple Watch.

"The launch was pretty much everything we expected with one big exception: the watch, which won't be available until the first quarter," Rob Enderle, principal analyst at Enderle Group, told Benzinga in September.

Critics complained that Apple was playing catch-up to Samsung, HTC and other manufacturers that had already released large smartphones. Analysts and industry experts have made similar comments about the P85D.

"If you look at the iPhone 6, it comes out [with a] huge reveal," Ed Hellwig, executive editor of Edmunds, told Benzinga. He compared it to the P85D. "And in terms of size and the characteristics of it, it's very similar to phones that are already on the market, but they have their own spin on it."

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As Expected

Kelsey Mays, consumer affairs editor for Cars.com, thinks the P85D is an "interesting product" that was "expected" by auto enthusiasts.

"If you look at the Model S's competitors -- topflight luxury brands -- these cars all offer all-wheel drive," Mays told Benzinga. "It's something they've been offering for a number of years."

Karl Brauer, senior analyst for Kelley Blue Book, thinks Tesla had to launch the P85D to "make the continued claim of being at the cutting edge of technology."

"You've got things like Mercedes-Benz S-Classes, BMW 7 Series and Audis and all these other high-end luxury cars," Brauer told Benzinga. "[They] can do nearly autonomous driving, as well as offer all-wheel drive. The Tesla Model S doesn't offer either of those features. It allows people to question whether the car is as advanced as Elon wants it to appear."

Fernando Prieto, COO of Benzinga and a former investment manager at GM Ventures, told the #PreMarket Prep crew that Tesla's other "new" features also appear in competing vehicles.

"For example, the traffic sign recognition that was unveiled, that was first put in the Opel Insignia in 2008 in Europe," said Prieto. "That's not really new technology. A lot of the sensors that [Tesla] installed, those have been used by brands like GM, Volvo, Ford and others for a long time as well."

Hellwig feels that the P85D is Tesla's way of "catching up" to the competition.

"Going in that direction certainly puts them in the same competitive set as a lot of the Mercedes and BMW and Audi vehicles that it competes with," he said.

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Both Mays and Hellwig believe the new model could allow Tesla to reach customers on the East Coast, a popular market for luxury cars. It's also a market that endures months of inclement weather, which made the Model S less appealing.

"But it's not big news from an auto industry perspective," Hellwig added. "They're essentially adding a feature that their competitors have. It does make it a bit faster. Speed and exhilaration were certainly something it didn't need previously.

"I think it's a slight upgrade but certainly not something that's going to sway any customer one way or the other. The technology improvements, again, are essentially elements that are already available on all of its competitors. This is an area where the Model S was lagging. This essentially catches them up to some of the competitors."

Disclosure: At the time of this writing, Louis Bedigian had no position in the equities mentioned in this report.