Telematics could be next battle front for Google & Microsoft

Stuart Corner
Tuesday, 18 July 2006 09:09

IT Industry - Strategy

ABI Research suggests that in-car information services could be major new market that web portal giants like Google and Microsoft's Live.com will fight to dominate.
ABI Research says that navigation vendors and automakers alike have been engaged in a continual struggle to differentiate their navigation offerings, and that 2006 has finally brought such features as traffic information and text-to-speech to navigation. It believes the next steps are 3D renderings, images of buildings, and location-aware search. "All of which play right into the strengths of Web portals," ABI claims.

"Google and Microsoft's Live.com are portals that provide visual display and location-aware search very similar in functionality and appearance to some of the hybrid connected navigation and telematics systems in Japan, such as Honda's Internavi and Toyota's G-Book," says ABI Research's principal transportation analyst Dan Benjamin.

Microsoft bought the live.com domain name in November 2005 and now uses it to integrate all kinds of Microsoft web services, such as MSN Messenger, Hotmail and Anti-virus scanning. According to Wikipedia, the site was updated in March with a new look, more gadgets, and an improved interface. It also featured, for the first time, the new Windows Live Search. Features include intelligent scrolling, dynamic image search, and saved searches.

ABI Research's transportation research practice director, Frank Viquez, claims that Honda and Volkswagen are already working with Google to get Google's location portal services into vehicles, but says the automotive environment presents a number of significant challenges.

"In order to utilise such applications, vehicles will need increased processing power, graphics acceleration, and a high-speed data connection." Viquez notes that smaller portable navigation devices that have proven popular would be at a disadvantage in all of these categories.

The necessary communications bandwidth is likely to become widely available as WiMAX, HSDPA and 1x EV-DO deployments increase, removing a major barrier to the market. However, device limitations could mean that the technology is embedded in cars during manufacture.

Viquez suggests that the small portable navigation devices that have proved popular would be at a disadvantage. "It may make more sense for this type of content to be delivered to integrated automotive hardware, or perhaps a smartphone, rather than to the typical portable device."

If he's correct there will likely be much jostling as the likes of Google, Microsoft and Yahoo try to ally themselves with the major automotive manufacturers.