Ixonos Oyj : Apps in cars – from smartphones or head unit?

Recently IMS Research found out in their study that 38% of new car buyers want to buy applications in their cars. In the summary, IMS Research stated that this numbers was lower than they expected and raised a question, whether the industry should re-consider the effort and strategies in bringing applications into cars. I disagree with this conclusion. If you ask consumers about the future you probably will not find out what kind of services or solutions become popular in the future. I bet 15 years ago no consumer would have described Spotify as the solution for listening to your favorite music. I don't know how the questions were put together in the study, but asking consumers whether they are willing to pay for applications in their cars will definitely lead to different answers than asking whether consumers are willing to pay 50 Euros for Navigation in their cars (instead of buying a factory fitted high-end head unit with navigation for at least 2 000 Euros). Having said this, 38% to me is actually quite high!

Today people use apps from their smartphones when driving. They do, even though most of us know how dangerous it is. People are texting, using social media and browsing the Internet while they drive. A report from USA Today revealed that in the US, almost 50% of drivers have browsed the net while driving. This sets a challenge to the industry. People seem to do this, so we should provide a safe way to do it. For this we must capture the most important needs of e.g. accessing Internet while driving. Could we provide the same information in a safer way? For messaging and social media we have already many examples of text-to-speech solutions for vehicles.

Will applications in head units then become a significant business? Yes and no. When it comes to just selling apps, I don't think that too many will make a fortune of just selling the In-Vehicle applications within the next five years. Developing applications to cars is much more restricted and complicated than developing mobile apps. The software platforms for head units are fragmented and will be for the next couple of years at least. The driver distraction regulations need to be taken into account, different input methods and Human-to-Machine-Interfaces (HMIs) and in many cases also the vehicle manufacturer's interests. Basically the developers should support Linux, QNX, Windows, Android and RTOS based systems and have different UIs and input mechanisms for different vehicle manufacturers. Handling all this becomes too expensive vis-a-vis the potential volumes and revenues. Just because of these restrictions I don't believe that there will be hundreds of different applications for in-vehicle use within the next five years. If you have apps for navigation with real time traffic information, enjoying music, searching, communicating and saving money (e.g. eco driving) you already have the most important in-vehicle use cases covered from driver's point of view.

One question is which applications and services should be in the head unit? Really located in the head unit? I don't believe that the majority want to put their email accounts and Facebook accounts into cars, which are used also by others. You could talk about 'private apps' and 'public apps'. With private ones there is always some private information, such as user accounts, address books, messages and calendar events. These private applications are today in mobile devices, usually smartphones and so should it be also in case of in-car use. Public applications, such as FM Radio, audio controls, internet radio and media players could be located in the head unit.

In-car apps could be located in your smartphone and your head unit. Ixonos is developing its Ixonos IVI Connect™ solution for integrating mobile devices with head units. There are already different ways to integrate the smartphone with the head units. MirrorLink™ aims to have a standard way to do this, but there are proprietary solutions as well. As a driver I prefer to a solution which allows me to keep my phone in the pocket instead of connecting cables every time I enter a car, and to have an optimized user experience for my car's head unit.

What is then the business for in-car apps? Now that we have smartphones involved, we can bring the car into the consumer's phone in addition to bringing the phone's features to the car. I believe we have not seen the best yet, but there are already nice ways how car makers have brought their vehicles into smartphones by providing information about driving habits, vehicle status and service. There are also solutions where you can remotely control some functions of the car, such as heating and locking/unlocking the doors. Smartphone applications can provide new kind of information for the car manufacturers, which should help them in marketing and serving better the consumer's needs and improve brand loyalty in the future. It is not about selling apps, it is about utilizing them! Keep private apps in the phone and minimize the need to sync and configure on many devices. Think how to utilize the content and features of the mobile device in the car, but also vice versa. Having also the car in the phone introduces plenty of new opportunities to extend the car owning, driving and traveling experience.