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To: Dealer who wrote (27302)	7/31/2000 5:17:30 PM
From: Dealer	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 35685

QCOM--Monday July 31 4:58 PM ET Ford, Qualcomm Team for Web in Cars By JUSTIN HYDE, AP Auto Writer DEARBORN, Mich. (AP) - Ford Motor Co. (NYSE:F - news) and Qualcomm Inc. (NasdaqNM:QCOM - news) have formed a joint venture to snag a share of what they hope will be a lucrative market for wireless services such as Internet access in cars and trucks. The move announced Monday mirrors the plans General Motors Corp. (NYSE:GM - news) has laid out for its OnStar service; by 2004, the automakers expect to have the systems on nearly all the vehicles they sell in the United States - about nine million a year. Behind both plans is the bet that millions of drivers will be willing to pay up to $30 a month to hear e-mail read to them, make phone calls or have extra security systems. ``We want all of our cars and trucks to become personalized portals for our global consumers,'' said Ford Chief Executive Officer Jac Nasser. ``These portals will serve as their link to the world around them.'' The Ford-Qualcomm venture, known for now as Wingcast, will offer a variety of services for between $9 and $29 a month, said Brian Kelley, president of Ford's ConsumerConnect division. Wingcast will be a separate company, staffed with Ford and Qualcomm employees and based in San Diego. Its president and CEO is Harel Kodesh, who had been Microsoft Corp.'s (NasdaqNM:MSFT - news) vice president of consumer appliances and who led the development of Microsoft Windows CE for hand-held devices. Kelley said Ford plans to equip more than a million of its new cars and trucks by the end of 2002, three million by 2003 and virtually all of its vehicles by 2004, including those from its foreign brands - Jaguar, Land Rover, Mazda and Volvo. Nissan also plans to use Wingcast services in some Infiniti models, and might expand it, depending on customer demand. Kelley and Qualcomm officials would not say what specific features the service would offer, although they mentioned several possibilities, including Internet access, phone service and emergency notification. Paul E. Jacobs, Qualcomm's executive vice president, said Wingcast also could use more advanced technology Qualcomm is developing. One example: an owner could have the service send an alert if the car is driven beyond a certain distance by a valet or a teen-age borrower. Ford has trailed GM in offering such services, which GM has touted as a major source of revenue in coming years. GM already offers OnStar, a satellite-based system with more than 300,000 subscribers who can use the service to get driving directions, track a stolen car, unlock a car when the keys are left inside, or summon an ambulance after an air bag deploys. GM expects to have OnStar installed in one million vehicles by the end of this year. GM is also rolling out Internet access and phone service through OnStar this year. Later this year, Ford will offer cellular phone service through handsets sold with certain Lincoln models as part of a deal with Sprint. Kelley said that deal runs through 2001, and Ford has not chosen a wireless provider for its new service. Kelley said such systems, known as telematics, were a ``hyper-growth'' market. Ford said International Data Corporation has estimated the market for telematics will grow to $42 billion by 2010, from $1 billion in 1998. GM sold about five million cars and trucks last year; if every one had the basic OnStar subscription of $199 a year, GM would have generated $1 billion in revenue. On the Net: ford.com gm.com