By giving up total control, Apple is broadening its reach and stifling competition at the same time. Plus, it's a win for automakers. A car manufacturer typically can't compete with the highly tuned world of smartphone and tablet innovation, but CarPlay allows them let their customers use their iPhones to drive the in-car communication, navigation and music experience -- in a familiar way.
Apple's CarPlay initiative is a profoundly new tactic for Apple.Compared to its behavior in recent years, when Apple has focused intense control overevery element of its product environment -- frompackaging, hardware and operating systems to the submission process for its App Stores -- Apple's stance in its CarPlay initiative is a very big deal.It's not so much a big deal because there is a huge poolof iPhone users who drive cars. No, CarPlay is a big deal becauseApple is letting auto manufacturers deliver the look and feelof an Apple product.
Instead of Apple obsessing over every detail of acar's built-in display, the carmakers decide on the size, angles andcontrols. Instead of Apple designers obsessing over how a button or knob feels to auser, Ferrari or Ford teams get to do that.
The results, so far, are 50-50 at best.
Of the four implementations I've seen in photos and videodemonstrations, only two actually look good and feel like theybelong together. The best, of course, is the implementation that Applehas teasingly highlighted on its own CarPlay site.Apple told me that the dash in the illustrative photos comes from areal car but declined to identify the make and model (it looks an awful lot like the Honda version, though, pictured below). It's fantastic, of course -- built like it belongs.
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