Apple and BMW - Web radio dream team
By: Drivers.com staff
Date: 2010-03-09
The BMW Mini is something of a style icon for younger drivers . The Apple iPhone fits into the same category. The two merging in BMW's "Mini Connection" option looks like a brilliant partnership of brands.
Web radio, with it's sometimes patchy streamed content, has been around for quite a while. However, its breakthrough into the automobile should give web radio a major push and also be an ideal blend of marketing.
The big difference? Linking up drivers' love of radio with the convenience and low cost of access to over 10,000 radio stations world wide, and making the web radio accessible through the car's radio controls rather than have drivers attempting to tweak stations using the iphone's tiny controls.
In Mini Connected, the iPhone connects to the car's infotainment system via USB Cable. The menu is displayed at the center of the speedometer, on a screen which is also capable of displaying other information such as traffic, navigation, routing.
Naturally the system begets new worries about driver distraction as drivers potentially scan amongst the huge selection of radio stations. It's ironic that, after all these years the focus of distraction shifts back to the radio, which was first controversial in this regard in the early part of the last century.
Read "The Battle for the Dashboard" for more on distraction.
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