MS and Siemens: The ICEmen Cometh
Carseek reports that Microsoft is forming a partnership with Siemens to develop a line of ICE (in-car entertainment) products. Their goal: improve connectivity between car music players and mobile phones by 2009. The market for such "infotainment” is currently valued at some $38b, rising to $54b by 2012. Microsoft and Siemens are hoping “to bridge the gap between the relatively rapid development cycles common in information and communications technology and the long ones that are the norm for automotive engineering.” Time will tell if the tortoise and the hair will be able to cooperate and reach the finish line together.
Glenn is a baby-boomer, born in 1954. Along with his wife, he makes his home in Connecticut. Employed in the public sector as an Information Tedchnology Specialist, Glenn has long been a car fan. Past rides have included heavy iron such as a 1967 GTO, to a V8 T-Bird. In between those high-horsepower cars, he's owned a pair of BMW 320i's. Now, with a daily commute of 40 miles, his concession to MPG dictates the ownership of a 2006 Honda Civic coupe which, while fun to drive, is a modest car for a pistonhead. As an avid reader, Glenn enjoys TTAC, along with many other auto-realated sites, and the occasional good book. As an avid electronic junkie, Glenn holds an Advanced Class amateur ("ham") radio license, and is into many things electronic. From a satellite radio and portable GPS unit in the cars, to a modest home theater system and radio-intercom in his home, if it's run by the movement of electrons, he's interested. :-)
More by Glenn Swanson
Comments
Join the conversation
Typical MS FUD move. I'll eat my alternator if anything truly productive comes out of this "partnership". --chuck http://chuck.goolsbee.org
Microsoft already provides my ICE in the form of an Xbox under the passenger seat. Now they probably wouldn't approve of the fact that it's modded, or that I have >300 GB of music, videos, and games stored on the upgraded hard drive. Still, they have my appreciation for making such an inexpensive and easily hacked car computer.
Chaser Could you email me some details about how you modded your Xbox? I have an old one laying around, and I have an Eclipse DVD player and screen in the dash of my Civic.
That might be a fun combo. You can email me at ryanknuckles (at) yahoo (dot) com
Editor's note: Please don't list email addresses openly in comments. They can be harvested from the comments by spambots crawling the web. I've edited this address to keep it from appearing as such. - FW
Thanks Frank. Newbie mistake.