Smart Phone Apps Coming to Your Car? Yes!

Smart phone apps are coming to your car. Yes, soon, there will be an app for turning your car into an integrated part of your mobile lifestyle.

In fact, three particular smart apps show the potential these mobile technologies can provide drivers and new car buyers. Kevin Hamlin, an automotive electronics analyst at researcher supplier www.iSuppli.com who recently attended the all-things-tech Frankfurt Auto Show, says the emerging market for smart phone apps is going to be a battle.

Hamlin claims this fast-growing market of car apps is a fight between device manufacturers, wireless service providers and software developers. For car makers, says Hamlin, “apps provide new ways to deliver infotainment and telematics services.”

“The global automotive industry has entered an exciting phase with OEMs, suppliers and software developers all pushing innovative and unique approaches to add apps to cars,” says Hamlin.

In the glitz and glam of the Frankfurt Auto Show, Hamlin says he witnessed the launch of the three aforementioned car app concepts. Which app will battle it out to become the dominant car app?

BMW ConnectedDrive

BMW unveiled a smart app called ConnectedDrive. Developed by the Concept BMW Application Store, these car apps will be downloaded in the car (or from your laptop’s flash drive) to the car’s iDrive “infotavigation” system (pictured left). (Yes, I have coined the new term “infotavigation” for an integrated multimedia software package with features such as wireless connectivity, digital audio, voice-activated navigation, traffic, weather, games, vehicle information and even access to social media networks like Facebook and Twitter.)

“ConnectedDrive basically runs the entire telematics offering, which includes BMW Assist and BMW Connect,” says Hamlin. He says BMW Connect offers full internet access through your car for downloading these emerging car apps directly to your car. “In Germany, drivers have full in-car internet access,” Hamlin claims.

Nokia's Digital Cable

The second phone app solution is from wireless device maker Nokia. Rather than creating an entirely new product, however, Nokia seems to be giving drivers a way to integrate up-to-the-minute phone apps with your car’s already outdated (even if brand new!) infotavigation screen.

At the Frankfurt Auto Show, Hamlin says execs from the Nokia Research Center introduced a digital cable that connects a phone to the vehicle’s “head unit.” The head unit in the car is the computer and screen combo in your dashboard. Bascially, it’s a rolling laptop built into your car.

That’s why Nokia’s new cable can turn your existing infotavigation system (or head unit) into your mobile device’s twin. Yes, you can run your phone and all of its apps from your car’s in-dash screen. How cool is that?

But how will you be able to control your phone apps when using the system in your car? Hamlin says that will be controlled by your car’s current system. This means that if you control your infotavigation system by voice or touch or steering wheel controls, then that is how it will be controlled in your car.

Nokia also built in some integration with the car’s Controller Area Network (CAN), which lets the infotavigation system “talk” to the vehicle. This would provide electronic data like fuel level, fuel efficiency stats and system alerts.

Nokia says its is also developing a similar wireless cable system that works via Bluetooth connectivity.

Parrot FC6100

The third product at the Frankfurt Auto Show, says Hamlin, is being developed by wireless equipment supplier Parrot. Known for providing hands-free wireless systems with Bluetooth connectivity, Parrot unveiled a completely new head unit.

Using Android-Java software, which is found on most new smart phones, Parrot’s FC6100 head unit basically holds “everything you could want for connectivity,” says Hamlin.

Some of those things you may want in your car (and that Parrot’s FC6100 can provide) is audio streaming, speaker-independent voice recognition, multimedia connectivity, smart track browsing, play list management 3G (or even 4G) web browsing , 3.0 wifi and, of course, Bluetooth connectivity.

While all of these features are appealing, says Hamlin, the Android/Java-based operating system (OS) is the “most intriguing.” He says the mystique comes from how the Android-Java OS allows for an “easily customizable user interface for OEMs.”

What does this mean? It means no new car in the next couple of model years will be sitting on a dealer’s lot with this way cool Android-Java OS inside the dash. First, Parrot has to complete its testing and then car manufacturers have to start putting these super cool OS head units in their cars.

Hamlin says having these Android/Java-based OS head units in cars is important for a couple of reasons. First, he says, Parrot’s FC6100 would be an “open source community of developers” to create apps. And, because most new phones (such as T-Mobile’s Google phone or the MyTouch 3G) are based on the same OS, you can download apps directly to your car. Finally, he says this means developers will no longer need to develop separate apps for infotavigation systems for cars.

So, who will win the fight?

Will car makers develop their own systems, will they buy these newfangled wirelessly connected head units or will you just buy a cheap wireless cable?

“I think the industry as a whole will decide upon a route,” says Hamlin.

Plus, he says, there’s still safety considerations to keep in mind. “When you start putting apps in the car, you have to make sure it is separate from security,” says Hamlin.

Yes, he’s talking about your car catching a virus. And, for example, what if that virus corrupted one of your advanced safety systems such as air bag deployment or electronic stability control (ESC)?

Hamlin says car makers are “very confident” they can separate the head unit OS system from the car’s advanced safety and other sensing systems.

“Whichever way the automakers go, mobile apps are going to become more readily available in the vehicle,” says Hamlin.

One thing Hamlin does not mention is that much of this mobile technology cannot run seamlessly without 4G super speed wireless (sometimes called long-term evolution or LTE networks. (Recently, Mercedes-Benz tested its new completely mobile myCOMAND infotainment system (pictured above) on a 4G network with great success.)

Got an app for that? Bring it on!

Sheryll Alexander is a lifestyles writer based in Costa Mesa, Calif. Follow me! @sheryllalexande