A rádio a afastar-se do carro

«Have you heard about what Ford Motor Company and Microsoft are partnering to do?
They’ve come up with a new factory installed fully-integrated, voice activated in-car communications and entertainment system for mobile phones and digital players. It’s called SYNC.
Users can access their mobile phones or digital music player including access to genres, album, artist, title, song all by voice commands. (SYNC is fluent in English, Spanish or French).
Names and phone numbers in mobile address books are wirelessly and automatically transferred to your car.
SYNC works with iPod, Zune (of course – it’s Microsoft), Play for Sure players and USB storage devices. The system can be updated for whatever becomes the rage next because all it requires is a software adjustment.
It’s hands-free thanks to Bluetooth. Contains a USB port for command and control and for charging digital music players. There’s audible text messaging from you mobile phone. Your contact list. Advanced calling features. It gets better and better.
While cars will still have radios and, increasingly, satellite radios, the traditional radio could become a relic of generations past. (...)

But auto manufacturers are also looking to install hard drives in their cars so drivers can download their own CDs, digital tunes or whatever and that entertainment remains in the car. Even exotic cars are adding distractions from radio. The new Maserati GranTurismo doesn’t have satellite radio. It doesn’t have Bluetooth. But it does have a hard drive for drivers to transfer their own content from CDs – those wild and crazy Italians (...).

The radio industry, still best equipped to produce content, must see this opportunity as a chance to adapt to the marriage of new technology and changing sociology. Radio companies can continue to run transmitters and towers, but now they must become content providers for new media – even entertainment systems in tomorrow’s cars.

fonte: Jerry Del Colliano, Inside Music Media, 27/02/08