Enter the rumormill: Apple developing navi for Benz?
Oh, how the Apple faithful love a good rumor. Car folks are not so different. Some of us at Autoblog live in both camps, so imagine our joy when our two favorite rumor mills got together to whisper about a possible tie-up between Apple and Mercedes.
Foursprung is where we first saw the rumor that Apple is working with the Germans to develop an in-car navigation system based on Google maps. Despite Apple's penchant for super-secrecy, so the rumor goes, it can't plug all the German-speaking leaks. Focus magazine, a German publication, first broke the story, and says Apple plans not only GPS for Mercedes, but also a sound system. Supposedly the deal would be exclusive to Mercedes for the first six months of 2009, at which time the technology would be offered to other manufacturers.
Knowing Apple CEO Steve Jobs' preference for Mercedes, and Apple's new push into consumer electronics, a GPS system is at least somewhat believable. Add the audio system element, and we got to thinking. What if Apple wasn't working on two projects with Mercedes, but instead just one? It seems plausible that Apple's next step after in-car iPod integration would be in-car iPhone integration. Music, movies, Internet and GPS all from one pocket-sized gadget on your dashboard? Now that sounds like Apple. Unfortunately, there has been much gnashing of teeth over the fact the iPhone does not include GPS. But could it by 2009? Steve only knows.
Can we hope Apple and BMW are working on a new iDrive? Hey, the name's already there.
[Sources: Focus, FourSprung]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
prolix21 9:38AM (6/18/2007)
given apple's ties to google, i would suspect some sort of google maps based satnav system. sounds like a good combo to me.
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epilonious 9:57AM (6/18/2007)
This reminds me of one of the little snippets from MIB II: If you look at the Nav system J uses in the Mercedes, you'll notice it has a little apple up on top of the display and the screen shows the OS-X dock fit to the curve in the screen.
If that was made real, it would be quite nifty.
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Stuart 10:59AM (6/18/2007)
Thankfully the old Mercedes is back to being a force to be reckoned with. They should have dumped Chrysler sooner
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Nick 3:33PM (6/18/2007)
LOL, whatever you say, Stuart. They'll be purchased by someone else soon enough. People will realize soon that the one thing keeping Mercedes afloat during the first years of the 2000's was Chrysler.
Stuart 2:57PM (6/20/2007)
Chrysler made one year of profit compared to 6 years of totally stupid amount of losses. The losses covered by Daimler where more then the company was worth. But don't worry now daimler has got rid of chrysler, chrysler is going down and should cease to exist soon enough.
citizen 11:03AM (6/18/2007)
nah, apple makes their own hardware.
MacWorld 2008.......
......Apple unvails a new vehicle, the iCar*. The safest and cleanest car in the world. Sporting the new ego powered iDrive, which propells you with the strenght of your own ego.
*only availiable to .Mac account holders.
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blitzkrieg79 11:07AM (6/18/2007)
Actually if Apple were to release their own car, it couldn't be named iCar as Mitsubishi has a car with that name for the past 2 years... But the Mitsubishi design actually fits well with Apple, nice, clean, compact, cute looking design, and it's also fuel efficient.
citizen 11:25AM (6/18/2007)
well yes.
but look at the whole Cisco iPhone thing, wouldent be that surprising.
Big Mike Wood 12:30PM (6/18/2007)
This would be tremendous for Apple and MB as well. The Mac platform is a dead end so the only way they can expand and grow is through consumer electronics, which lucky for them seems to be working out nicely. Why not try to become another Panasonic or Sony?
And lord knows MB needs all the help it can get. They can't really compete on quality so the more style points they can get the better. You know how many 'lifestyle conscious' poseurs would line up to buy an expensive crappy car that has both the Mercedes and the Apple logo on it? A lot. The corporate advertising machines at these two corporations have definitely earned their money.
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col337 12:47PM (6/18/2007)
Big Mike, the Mac platform is as dead as you are retarded for saying so.
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citizen 12:58PM (6/18/2007)
"Big Mike, the Mac platform is as dead as you are retarded for saying so."
Just what i was gonna say, i definately see no deadness in my macbook, nor in the leopard its running on.
XGM 12:44PM (6/18/2007)
Well ya know, i woudn't want a blue screen of death in my car. So fair enough.
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Sean Flanagan 1:37PM (6/18/2007)
Guys, I think what Mike means is that an operating system can only be so much. The Mac OS itself makes almost no money for Apple. Their profit lies in the things related to the personal computer, but not a personal computer. Apple has shown its intention to spread the basis of the OS to other realms with the AppleTV and iPhone, both of which run striped-down versions of OS X. A navigation system is another medium for morphing the OS into something that is application-specific.
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