Is it a mobile phone? It’s not only a mobile.. Is it a music player? It’s also a player… But can I sail on internet? Of course! Photo and video? Oh yes!
This is the new smartphone beauty and paying a few hundred euro or with small monthly installments you can get these new multifunction objects which open up a world of infinite services, thanks to internet connection, from game apps to useful ones for everyday life.
Maps, navigators, compasses, radio, tv shows, movies….
I’ve found a recent app “hudway” really interesting for drivers safety: the smartphone placed on the dashboard projects on the windshield the satellite map, showing the road and the distance from the destination without turn away from the road and always getting behind the wheel. It is very useful during the night, in fog or heavy rain.
It’s just one of many and useful apps available and most of which is free!
Biggest player producers of old mobiles have learnt quickly that if they wanted to go on with their core business, they would adapt the products to new era and new technologies. So telematics is a consequence of this, the close relation between telecommunications and informatics.
A field that, as already dealt with by Nicodemo in “Connected car value”, will have a very important future for drivers, for services in remote diagnosis of car malfunctions, roadside assistance, automatic reporting of an accident, stolen car tracking, remote interaction with the vehicle such as opening and closing doors, check the fuel level and so on. In addiction there will be over a number of other benefits and services as insurance premiums calibrated on the use of the car and the driver’s driving style and great advantages obtained by companies in managing their fleets.
So to me the OEMs are working back into the swing of things on this way, but when are we going to have a real “democratization” of these technologies, I mean services easily available at low cost? … Who knows!
And in the meantime?
This is the pecular thing, the most OEMs today offer as optional a simple navigator, at high price, up to 2,000 Euro, incomparable with prices and services of smartphone, with data updates for a fee (some even offer connecting USB!) while there are free apps that update you in real-time about traffic and possible alternative itineraries.
Is this a strategy to new digital generations?
You know that people who find immediately everything and more on internet and share it with the others…. Mysteries of the marketing!
Translated by Federica Izzo
