The new industry standard for music?

Apple integrates iPod with Honda, Acura, Audi, & VW in US

Apple has teamed up with Acura, Audi, Honda and Volkswagen to deliver iPod integration with their car stereos for 2006 models. There are now 15 car manufacturers around the world, including BMW, offering iPod integration, and Apples expects that over 5 million cars will ship with iPod support in the US in 2006.

Some analysts reportedly expect that the iPod will challenge digital car radio networks for a slice of the growing market for in-car entertainment technology, but one of the US’ two digital radio networks, XM Satellite, about half of whose 4.4m subscribers are ca-based customers, said, "These are two very different offerings … XM is unique because we have hundreds of programmers delivering millions of songs plus live news, live sports and talk directly to subscribers".

XM is available in cars from GM, Honda, Toyota, Hyundai, Nissan and VW/Audi. Rival US satellite digitial radio network Sirius declined to comment yesterday on Apple’s announcement.

mel72349 - 9/9/2005 10:02:33 AM

+1 Boost

Would someone please wake Jaguar up? If they want to be competative Jaguar should be part of the leading edge instead of MIA.

mel72349 - 9/9/2005 10:11:36 AM

+1 Boost

Sure, the XJ and XK have lots of driving-assist and vehicle dynamics help, but they lag far behind in personal technologies integration. Personal gadgets are BIG, and being part of the driving environment is inevitable.

The luxury (and near-luxury) market is where new technologies first arrive. So where is Jaguar?

Steve - 9/9/2005 3:34:53 PM

+1 Boost

Keep in mind that "iPod Integration" can mean a great many things. For example, it could mean as little as being able to plug your iPod into your car's sound system so that you use your iPod as your normally do, but instead of hearing your tunes on your headphones, you hear them through your car's speakers.

Magazine reviewers called BMW's iPod integration "rudimentary," for example. If you are making a purchase decision based on a feature, make sure you are well informed. The devil is in the details.

Steve - 9/9/2005 3:34:53 PM

+1 Boost

Keep in mind that "iPod Integration" can mean a great many things. For example, it could mean as little as being able to plug your iPod into your car's sound system so that you use your iPod as your normally do, but instead of hearing your tunes on your headphones, you hear them through your car's speakers.

Magazine reviewers called BMW's iPod integration "rudimentary," for example. If you are making a purchase decision based on a feature, make sure you are well informed. The devil is in the details.

E55AMGS600 - 9/15/2005 2:57:56 PM

+1 Boost

Steve , you are right. Even the advanced ipod integrators like Alpine's KCA unit fail to integrate the 'click wheel' concept that made the ipod what it is. You have to slowly select manually through folders, files, and wait approx. 0.5 second after each artist/title selection. That does not sound like a lot but it is infuriating when you have to go to the 25th track or go to the M-section in the alphabet! Also, large filenames and bad characters in the ID3 tags cause MAJOR problems when trying to read the files.
Best bet - the new Car stereo DVD-MP3 players. They can hold 4.7Gb / 10Gb dual sided - with almost unlimited storage capacity, select by folder/track/artist, very scalable! Coupled with rapid-fast track access and lower installation costs (e.g. no ipod, no integration box needed) you have a winner. Plus DVD-video capability to boot!