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      04-08-2007, 10:00 PM   #362
JSpira
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Quote:
Originally Posted by drkeng View Post

Lastly:
Just caught the end of an ESPN story that I think was at the NY auto show showcasing a Ford with USB ipod functionality coming out in the fall. They demonstrated voice activation; they said a song name and it played.
Will 6FL work with voice commands or did Ford 1-up BMW?? BTW, no mention of the fact that BMW was the first to ipod integrate of what they have available now.
Well, Microsoft, NOT Ford, one-upped BMW. I spent hours driving in a Lincoln with SYNC and it is a great system. You can say album or track name (it falls short on classical music, where you need to specify more info such as composer, piece, and ensemble but I have Microsoft looking into fixing that already).

Microsoft has worked VERY VERY hard on getting as many Bluetooth-enabled phones as possible to work on their platform. That piece also works very well.

Fiat was the first auto mfr. to introduce a Microsoft Automotive platform with Blue&Me. You can download new features from Fiat's Web site (add an SMS reader for example or language support).

So will BMW license Microsoft's platform (going forward, Microsoft is going to sell the platform and car makers will build around it; with Ford and Fiat, Microsoft was involved down to the product level)? Maybe.

I have to be very careful here in what I say but let's just say "anything's possible." My personal opinion is that BMW resists platforms like this due to the NIH syndrome so this may be an uphill battle.

Why do I feel like in-house counsel should be reading my post before I post this one?
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