Ford won’t follow nemesis GM, will continue using Apple CarPlay and Android Auto
Ford has decided not to monetise the infotainment content as its arch-rival General Motors. The US automaker has cleared that it will follow in the footsteps of GM in ditching Apple CarPlay and Android Auto in favour of an in-house developed infotainment software that will sell content to the users. Ford believes that there is not a significant money-making opportunity in selling infotainment content like General Motors.
Ford CEO Jim Farley has said in an interaction with The Wall Street Journal that there are two camps in the software car OEMs. In one group, there is Tesla and others like GM. However, Ford is the other group, he claimed. "I think the first three shippable software content that will be cool for customers is not the interior digital experience. The interior has to be really well done, but in terms of content, we kind of lost that battle ten years ago. So get real with it because you’re not going to make a ton of money on the content inside the vehicle; it’s going to be safety/security, partial autonomy, and productivity in our eyes," Farley added.
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General Motors announced a few days ago that it would start selling infotainment content to users in a bid to churn more revenue. In this process, the US auto major decided to ditch Apple CarPlay and Android Auto and develop its own in-house infotainment software to support selling the content.
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This software is also claimed to collect and analyze customer data and sell them service subscriptions, potentially unlocking a huge revenue stream. However, the Ford boss believes there isn't enough money-churning opportunity inside a vehicle. He also said that 70 per cent of Ford's customers in the US are Apple iPhone users, which is another key reason why the automaker wants to stick to Apple CarPlay alongside Android Auto.
