March CarPlay roundup, plus competitive landscape
The Mac Observer | Samsung Buying Harman to Take on Apple’s CarPlay (14 Nov 2016)
9to5Mac | Apple now at over 200 CarPlay vehicles, confirms 50 new models w/ support (8 Dec 2016)
MacRumors | Jaguar and Shell Partnership Lets UK Drivers Use Apple Pay to Pay for Fuel Inside Car (15 Feb 2017)
9to5Mac | Harman details its first wireless CarPlay infotainment system for automakers (23 Feb 2017)
“Bringing Harman into Samsung’s stable means it’ll already have a ready-made solution for competing with Apple’s CarPlay. It also means Samsung will own Harman’s other brands including AKG, Harman Kardon, Infinity, JBL, Bang & Olufsen, Bowers & Wilkins, Lexicon, Mark Levinson, and Reve. Apple has CarPlay partnerships with 40 difference car makers and is pushing for more.
…
“CarPlay is Apple’s in-dash system for linking to our iPhones to play music and videos, show driving directions, answer phone calls, and more—all hands-free. Instead of locking users into an in-dash system for the life of the vehicle, CarPlay users get a new system or new features when they update or upgrade their iPhone.
“That’s a market Samsung wants in on, and buying Harman outright is much easier than starting from scratch.
“Samsung says Harman fans don’t need to worry about the company disappearing. Harman will continue to operate as an independent company after the buyout wraps up some time in mid-2017.”
Reminds me of when Microsoft bought Bungie, which as a Mac gaming company that already had major gaming hits with its “ Marathon” and " Myth" gaming trilogies and had announced a new title coming to the Mac named “ Halo”, to be released in 2000. Microsoft’s purchase came accompanied by promises that Halo would still be released for the Mac (it was delayed 3 1/2 years and the initial Halo release for the Mac was the only one) but would instead shift to becoming Xbox-focused, which indeed it has. Steve Jobs was pretty ticked about all of that, but frankly he probably deserved that particular knife in the back since he had first dibs at buying Bungie and chose not to exercise them.
We’ll see if Samsung treats Harman differently than Microsoft treated Bungie. I'm guessing all the Harman brands, like Bang & Olufsen, start to disappear from Apple Store shelves soon, if they aren't doing so already.
9to5Mac | Jeep unveils 2017 Compass with CarPlay as Porsche shows off Panamera Turbo S E-Hybrid with Apple Watch integration (24 Feb 2017)
Jeez, Jeep … didja have to bring such an obviously photoshopped image of your product into this? |
