Courtesy of a good friend of mine at Visteon...
GM launches hands-free phone service
- OnStar talk-activated calls start this week in southeast
Michigan
Detroit News Mar-20-2001
author: Joe Miller
DETROIT -- Don't be alarmed if you start to see more motorists
talking to themselves while
cruising Metro Detroit roads and highways beginning this week.
If they're behind the wheel of a new General Motors Corp. car
or truck, chances are they are
using OnStar personal calling -- a new voice-activated,
hands-free cell phone.
GM is rolling out the hands-free cell phone service with its
OnStar package in Southeast
Michigan starting this week. It's available in more than 30 of
GM's 2002 and 2001 cars and
trucks offered by Cadillac, Buick, Chevrolet, Oldsmobile,
Pontiac, GMC and Saab. It will be
available nationwide by the end of April.
By adding more features, GM hopes to build OnStar -- the
electronic satellite-based
communication system first introduced in 1996 in Cadillacs --
into a high-volume profit
generator with a large subscription base.
Subscribers also can use a cell-phone to access OnStar's
virtual adviser, a new feature where
subscribers use voice commands for Internet access, including
e-mail, news, stock prices,
sports scores and weather reports.
GM expects annual revenues from OnStar to increase to $4
billion by 2005, up from an
estimated $750 million in 2001, Ronald Zarrella, president of
GM North America, disclosed
last month. Eventually, OnStar will provide GM with $1 billion
in net income a year, Zarrella
said.
Last year, GM installed OnStar in 1 million vehicles and plans
to equip 4 million vehicles by the
end of 2003. GM also has cut deals to put OnStar in some Honda
Motor Co. and Toyota
Motor Corp. vehicles and expects to announce deals with at
least two more automakers by
year's end.
Other automakers also hope to capitalize on growing demand for
in-vehicle communications
systems. Next year, Ford Motor Co. plans to launch Wingcast, a
similar communications
system being developed with Qualcomm Inc.
Up until now, OnStar has been primarily a safety and security
service that put a driver in
contact with an operator at the push of a button. With personal
calling, OnStar subscribers can
make phone calls on the road using pre-paid minutes. |
