Cars – maybe not a platform for services?
A little while ago, this post caught my attention, the 2008 cars are going to be the most wired and technology-laden ever. Since then a steady stream of new releases have proven this to be true.
From PSFK, BMW announced that Google’s local search will be available from the in-dash nav – only in Germany though :(. And then today from Engadget comes word of Infiniti’s new around-view monitor system which lets drivers ignore their windows.
While innovation is good and I’m usually not one to look gift electronics in the mouth, even I start to wonder whether loading cars up with all these extraneous gadgets is helpful. It feels that many of these manufacturers are creating a situation ripe for a disruptor to come along and steal their market.
As I noted previously, removing complexity from the hardware and pushing it into the software/services layer was a winning strategy for people like Nintendo. It’s also a strategy that’s now becoming open to someone in the automotive space.
Not only would this be a breath of fresh air, it could also help solve one of the industry’s longest running problems, how to capture female buyers.