Musk calls Apple's $19 polishing cloth "silly" and tops it by offering a $50 whistle

While Apple is far from being the most innovative smartphone manufacturer these days, there seems to be an unwritten law that when Apple does something seismic (as opposed to actually creating something innovative for its customers), others in the industry follow. For example, when Apple got rid of the 3.5mm earphone jack in 2016 starting with the iPhone 7 series, other phone manufacturers followed.

When Apple decided to stop including a charger and the EarPods in the box with the iPhone 12 line, Samsung and others followed. Whatever Apple does is big news because, well, Apple is Apple and it is the most valuable public company in the states. But having that distinction means that Apple does have a bullseye painted on its back.

When Apple decided to offer a polishing cloth in the Apple Store for $19, it seemed as though it was either a joke or a ripoff. A $19 polishing cloth is quite pricey even if it is the same cloth that Apple bundles in the box with its $4,999 Pro Display XDR. Some played it for laughs and iFixit even took it apart.

Yesterday, Tesla CEO Elon Musk took to his Twitter account to top Apple's ridiculously overpriced polishing cloth with a $50 whistle. This is no ordinary whistle, mind you. This is the one and only Cyberwhistle inspired by Tesla's Cybertruck. The Cyberwhistle is a limited edition "accessory" made from medical-grade stainless steel and features a polished finish. And top things off, Musk tweeted "Don’t waste your money on that silly Apple Cloth, buy our whistle instead!"

Many took Musk up on that offer since the Cyberwhistle is already sold out.

If Apple does eventually deliver its self-driving car (the latest rumor has it appearing in 2025), Tesla and Musk will really be rivals and you can imagine the shenanigans that will take place then. Musk last December also shared a story about how he was planning to offer Tesla to Apple a few years ago for a price that was just 10% of its current value. With a market cap of $1.16 trillion, Apple might have been able to buy the firm for $116 billion or nearly 39 times more than the $3 billion that Apple paid for Beats Audio in 2014, the largest acquisition in Apple history.

Apple never got to entertain Musk's offer since CEO Tim Cook declined to meet with him. Google reportedly had a deal at one time to buy Tesla, but that transaction fell through proving, as far as Musk is concerned, that sometimes the best deals are the ones you don't take.