Professional Documents
Culture Documents
could experience the app and “People are becoming more road conditions, population
all the action of the first part and more connected, and all densities, and population
of the app without owning that connectivity is starting migration.”
the vehicle. to revolve around the mobile
device as a nucleus – some- Additionally, the car gives off
WHERE THE MOBILE INDUSTRY thing they are putting in their information about the heat
IS HEADED... AND QUICKLY pocket.” it generates, the pollution
particulates it gives off – “the
Ty says as the number of car knows all these things” –
“The number of people who people with smartphones and as people become more
own smartphones - that increases over time, network eco-conscious, they will be
have browsing capability, capabilities will also improve. interested in capturing this
web capability and applica- And with that, consumers’ information, Ty said.
tion download capability – is expectations will rise. Con-
going from 90 million world- sumers will demand more in “You will see a bunch of
wide today to 190 million terms of how they are con- communities developing,”
in three years,” Ty said. In nected, who they are con- Ty said. “People will relate to
addition, industry leaders nected to and how they can each other in ways we’re not
are coming out with entirely use data, he said. thinking about today, such
new class of mobile devices, as everyone who drives on a
such as the iPad. “It’s not going to be about certain stretch of highway at
texting,” Ty said. “It’s going a certain time of day - that
“People live in a connected to be about communities is a community, and those
ecosystem,” said Ty, “and that are going to be formed people want to share infor-
that connected ecosystem ad hoc out of data that we mation about that trip.”
used to be tied to their home haven’t even thought of yet.”
computer or their work com- Additionally, navigation
puter, and now it’s follow- MOBILE AND THE “ought to become free,”
ing people around in their AUTOMOTIVE INDUSTRY Ty said. “There is a whole
phone.” market segment - like Tom
Toms and Garmins - that
As this transition occurs, “The automotive space is
is going to disappear or be
traditionally separate tech- unique,” Ty said, “because
fundamentally changed,”
nologies are collapsing into cars are meant to be in
Ty said. He said the iPad’s
mobile devices – camera, motion, and location-based
turn-by-turn feature, for
news reader, music/movie/ services are becoming more
use while docked in a car, is
TV players, email, texting, and more important.”
already changing that.
Twitter. “Just the range of
applications alone is stag- “The car generates a tremen-
“What people need to be
gering,” Ty said, citing the dous amount of data that is
thinking about are what
190,000 apps currently in important to the person in
kinds of things are going to
the App Store (the number the car as well as to a whole
disappear or be assimilated
has risen to 225,000 since series of people who aren’t
into this technology - like
publication of this article). in the car – including traffic,
turn-by-turn navigation and
to the mobile device via the be able to make calls, read auto industry, give them
interface. and send texts, search and marching orders, and let
play music all without ever them create the culture,” Ty
Carmakers need to focus on touching their mobile device. said. “It’s not an automotive
providing capability instead project; it’s a project that has
of applications themselves. The new electric cars, start- an automotive element to it.
“Right now people are creat- ing with Ford’s Focus Electric And its not a mobile project;
ing single-purpose boxes in 2011 models, will provide it’s a project that requires
the factory,” Ty said. “They drivers with key information mobile integration,” he said.
need to get away from that.” allowing them to plug in
their cars during non-peak “Don’t be afraid to innovate,
It will require a change of hours for more efficient and to create something new and
thought; “the automotive more affordable recharging. independent that is free to
companies in a sense have Ford and Microsoft are even experiment and fail, to try
to give up control,” Ty said. working with local utility crazy things that might seem
companies to create an entire insane,” Ty said. “Everyone
MOBILE STRATEGY FOR CAR energy ecosystem. needs to be thinking about it,
MANUFACTURERS:TY’S ADVICE but how they play in the space
2. “Start identifying and build- depends on the company –
ing key capabilities – software its character, its culture, and
1. “Get a good partner.” “There distribution, building inte- its will,” Ty said. “I can’t think
is a breadth of disciplines gration specs.” of a [single] industry that
that have to be mastered – wouldn’t benefit from this.”
from social networking and Ty said these pieces would
application and communi- not fall under the umbrella 3. “Develop prototyping
ties to software provision of the automotive organiza- capability. Test on a fleet,
distribution models, plus the tion, but should be done via a then integrate feedback and
business side of monetizing joint venture that allows the ideas.”
and marketing,” Ty said. organization to be physically
and culturally isolated from The auto industry typi-
Ty cited Ford’s partnership the manufacturing side. cally cycles through a 36- to
with Microsoft. Ford’s stra- 54-month product develop-
tegic partnership with Micro- Current developments in ment cycle. “If you wait two
soft has allowed it to become speech recognition, internal years, you’re going to have a
an industry technology information projection onto problem,” Ty said. “Ford will
integration leader with SYNC the mirror, dash and wind- be able to ride that wave as
and Hohm, both powered by shield, hand-gesture recog- acceleration in technology
Microsoft. Between SYNC, nition, in-car cameras that continues to ramp up.” Com-
and Hohm, a Ford driver track drivers’ eye movement, panies who start early will be
will be able to control their and other technologies can able to generate more veloc-
mobile device via voice acti- make this area a designer’s ity for themselves, while if
vation to get real time car playground. they start behind, they will
health data, traffic data, and be lower on the momentum
directions. They will also “Get them isolated from the curve. Prototyping allows a