Report: Apple making in-car entertainment/GPS for Mercedes

By Alex Zaharov-Reutt
Tuesday, 19 June 2007 21:00

Opinion and Analysis

Apple is supposedly entering the in-car entertainment/mp3/GPS market with presumably iPhone style technology, with Mercedes Benz rumored to have struck a deal to be first to release the technology in 2009 with a six month period of exclusivity.

Germany’s Focus magazine has made the rather startling report that Apple is considering entering the in-car entertainment market, presumably with a view to bringing Apple’s revolutionary interface and touch-screen technology into cars across the globe.

The article linked above is a Google translation of the original German story, with a very brief additional article linked here offering extra snippets of information.

The in-car market is currently dominated by car audio companies who have delivered in-car systems with slide out touch screens, DVD playback, analog and digital TV tuner, car-computer compatibility, CD/iPod/AM/FM capabilities, reverse camera capabilities and more, but no-one has anything that looks or works quite like the iPhone.

The Focus article states, after Google translation into English, that: “Mercedes will exclusively offer the new Apple set for six months. On an introduction on the market presumably 2009 are to be counted. Unclear it is still whether Apple - similar as with iPhone - on Google will trust maps as navigation aid”.

Because there are no quotes from anyone at Apple, who are reported to have already offered the traditional Apple ‘no comment’ to journalists who have asked, with no other indication of sources, secret or otherwise, it’s impossible to know just how accurate the Focus report is.

But given that the iPhone is a handheld computer, audio and video iPod, cell phone, web browser and more, it can easily be reprogrammed to offer whatever kind of interface you desire.

If that so happens to be one that’s even easier to use when driving around, whether by the driver using steering wheel controls or by touch screen when at the lights or safely stopped, or by passengers, then why not?

Apple’s touch screen technology will surely find its way into future desktop iMacs and notebook ‘MacBooks’. We might have to wait until sometime in 2008 or 2009 before that happens, but just as Apple are set to revolutionize the cell phone, why not the car and computers too?

So, while there’s nothing to back up Focus’ claim, there’s no question the technology is available and it’s all very feasible, if Apple wants to do it.

And that’s the $64 million dollar question. What does Apple want to do in a range of different markets with the iPhone technology?

For now, only Steve Jobs and his trusted team at the top truly know, but given the iPhone’s power as a true handheld multimedia computer, not only is anything possible, but when it comes to Apple, something new, exciting and different is practically always guaranteed.

Until Steve Jobs’ next surprise, let’s hope the in-car iPhone is real!