Live And In Color: Toyota And Microsoft To Host Joint Webcast

Bertel Schmitt
by Bertel Schmitt

Toyota and Microsoft will host a joint live webcast tomorrow, Wednesday, April 6 at 1 p.m. Pacific. “Steve Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft, and Akio Toyoda, president of Toyota Motor Corp., to discuss a collaboration between the two companies.,” says Microsoft.

Other details are not forthcoming. However, the announcement already gave rise to brainy tweets along the lines of “Mayday! Mayday! Imagine a Prius that runs on Microsoft Windows. Apply brakes …”

Winrumors thinks that “the companies will likely partner to offer a full Microsoft Automotive solution that goes further than Toyota’s previously announced Bing integration. Stay tuned for further details tomorrow.” On-line geeks speculate that “They’ll probably do their own Toyota style MS Sync service like what Ford has had, and now Kia also has though they call it something else.”

To find out whether Winrumors or the geeks are on target, watch the event at http://www.microsoft.com/newscenter .

Bertel Schmitt
Bertel Schmitt

Bertel Schmitt comes back to journalism after taking a 35 year break in advertising and marketing. He ran and owned advertising agencies in Duesseldorf, Germany, and New York City. Volkswagen A.G. was Bertel's most important corporate account. Schmitt's advertising and marketing career touched many corners of the industry with a special focus on automotive products and services. Since 2004, he lives in Japan and China with his wife <a href="http://www.tomokoandbertel.com"> Tomoko </a>. Bertel Schmitt is a founding board member of the <a href="http://www.offshoresuperseries.com"> Offshore Super Series </a>, an American offshore powerboat racing organization. He is co-owner of the racing team Typhoon.

More by Bertel Schmitt

Comments
Join the conversation
 6 comments
  • KixStart KixStart on Apr 05, 2011

    I like the value in Microsoft products (seriously, I do) but I'd much rather see what Apple could do with a car.

    • See 1 previous
    • Steven02 Steven02 on Apr 06, 2011

      I am more interested in what Android could do in a car. I want a car that can run flash :)

  • Rickhamilton620 Rickhamilton620 on Apr 05, 2011

    I think they've coordinated Entune with Microsoft the entire time. It makes sense since Sync, Uvo and Blue & Me use Microsoft's Automotive platform. As for the Apple UI idea, the chances of that happening seem slim. Apple's desire for complete control would mean it would probably only work with iPods. As hated as Microsoft is, at least their system is device agnostic, adapting to everything from iPods to USB flash drives.

  • APaGttH APaGttH on Apr 06, 2011

    In a simplified shut down procedure for push button ignition Toyota and Lexus products, Microsoft will introduce three new buttons to all Toyota products, CTRL-ALT-DEL. Pressing all three of these buttons together will result in a forced shut down of your Toyota product. All kidding aside, I really do love the Ford Sync system but my last experience in a rental Edge with the Sony touch controls left me cold. The solution felt very Microsoft, latency in button pushes, took forever to sync to my MP3 player, ironically a Zune for cripe sakes, and several crashes that resulted in a forced reset of the system. I suspect Ford has tacked on too much crap and the internal processor is overtaxed for how much has been added to the shell, GUI, and applets. I hope Toyota does it better.

  • Some Guy Some Guy on Apr 06, 2011

    Bing? Bing blows. Even Google does a better job of finding what you want on Microsoft's web site.

Next