Cars Gone Wireless
Automakers and tech companies are adding a growing array of information and entertainment extras such as Web access in vehicles.
Ford is getting its geek on. Like other automakers, the U.S. carmaker has long outfitted cars with CD players, satellite radios, and navigation systems. But now, Ford also boasts Web access.
Starting in March, Ford (F) began offering Web access through an optional, $1,195 in-dash PC to buyers of some of its trucks, including the F-150 pickup. Aimed at small business owners such as contractors, the PC lets users surf the Web using the Opera browser on Sprint Nextel’s (S) wireless network.
“There’s a need for productivity, a need for connectivity,” says Ed Pleet, a product manager at Ford.
Other automakers, wireless service providers, and a host of companies hope to tap into that same need, equipping vehicles with a broadening array of high-tech services, such as Internet access and TV services. “One could see countless opportunities when you put Internet in the vehicle,” Pleet says.
Wireless service providers such as Sprint, AT&T (T), and Verizon Wireless face a largely saturated cell-phone service market where 90% of the U.S. population already owns a cell phone. But automobiles and other vehicles represent a vast, largely untapped market. “It’s our next billion-dollar opportunity,” says Jim Patterson, president of wholesale business at Sprint.
There are 244 million cars registered in the U.S., and about 10 million new cars are expected to be sold in the U.S. this year, despite the recession, according to J.D. Power & Associates. Only a few tens of thousands of them have access to telecommunications services.
