Photo: Bogdan Popa/autoevolution/Ford
Statistics revealed by Ford CEO Jim Farley revealed that CarPlay is an incredibly popular feature in its car, once again proving that General Motors’ plan to kill it off is an awful decision.
Like Android Auto, CarPlay requires a smartphone and a compatible head unit to run. Carmakers have adopted mobile phone projection systems en-masse in the last few years, so CarPlay and Android Auto now come standard in the majority of vehicles.
Apple says 79 percent of U.S. buyers would even consider buying a car without CarPlay, so everybody was shocked when General Motors announced a plan to kill off the feature. The carmaker's new strategy will come into effect next year on electric vehicles and will gradually expand to the entire lineup. General Motors wants to switch entirely to zero-emission vehicles by 2035.
The announcement wasn’t received well by potential General Motors customers, and the latest figures revealed by Ford's CEO show precisely why.
Farley said in an interview that 7 in 10 Ford customers own an Apple device. "Why would I go to an Apple customer and say good luck?" Farley asked rhetorically, confirming his company has no intention to give up on CarPlay.
General Motors has never shared such statistics, but they’re likely similar to Ford's. With Apple devices owned by a significant share of GM customers, the company would leave plenty of potential buyers behind. All of them would eventually switch to other brands, despite GM's promise that its CarPlay replacement would offer a significantly upgraded experience.
Data provided by Kantar for the American market shows that Apple controls nearly half of the U.S. mobile world. iPhones hold a 48.3 percent market share in Apple's home market, while Android is running on 51.5 percent of the devices in the country. With a phone in everybody's pocket, dropping mobile phone projection is likely to backfire both in the short and the long term.
Farley explains that companies like Tesla and General Motors embrace a different strategy for the experience in the cabin. They want to "have complete control," and as such, they must abandon Android Auto and CarPlay. The user experience in the case of these apps is controlled by Google and Apple, respectively, as they are in charge of feature developments, updates, and app support.
Ford says it will continue to offer CarPlay support in its cars and focus more on safety, security, partial autonomy, and productivity. The company knows not having mobile phone projection behind the wheel could end up becoming a deal-breaker, so for now, it's sticking with the side that favors such capabilities in the car. In the long term, however, the trend seems to focus on monetizing content in the cabin, so time will tell if Ford will jump ship.
Apple says 79 percent of U.S. buyers would even consider buying a car without CarPlay, so everybody was shocked when General Motors announced a plan to kill off the feature. The carmaker's new strategy will come into effect next year on electric vehicles and will gradually expand to the entire lineup. General Motors wants to switch entirely to zero-emission vehicles by 2035.
The announcement wasn’t received well by potential General Motors customers, and the latest figures revealed by Ford's CEO show precisely why.
Farley said in an interview that 7 in 10 Ford customers own an Apple device. "Why would I go to an Apple customer and say good luck?" Farley asked rhetorically, confirming his company has no intention to give up on CarPlay.
General Motors has never shared such statistics, but they’re likely similar to Ford's. With Apple devices owned by a significant share of GM customers, the company would leave plenty of potential buyers behind. All of them would eventually switch to other brands, despite GM's promise that its CarPlay replacement would offer a significantly upgraded experience.
Data provided by Kantar for the American market shows that Apple controls nearly half of the U.S. mobile world. iPhones hold a 48.3 percent market share in Apple's home market, while Android is running on 51.5 percent of the devices in the country. With a phone in everybody's pocket, dropping mobile phone projection is likely to backfire both in the short and the long term.
Farley explains that companies like Tesla and General Motors embrace a different strategy for the experience in the cabin. They want to "have complete control," and as such, they must abandon Android Auto and CarPlay. The user experience in the case of these apps is controlled by Google and Apple, respectively, as they are in charge of feature developments, updates, and app support.
Ford says it will continue to offer CarPlay support in its cars and focus more on safety, security, partial autonomy, and productivity. The company knows not having mobile phone projection behind the wheel could end up becoming a deal-breaker, so for now, it's sticking with the side that favors such capabilities in the car. In the long term, however, the trend seems to focus on monetizing content in the cabin, so time will tell if Ford will jump ship.
At #WSJFuture Ford CEO @JimFarley talked to @JoannaStern about two camps in the car software OEM game today and why Ford is staying out of the content business.
— WSJ Live Journalism (@WSJLive) May 3, 2023
"70% of our Ford customers in the US are Apple customers. Why would I go to an Apple customer and say good luck?" pic.twitter.com/cXcUjW0qth
Google News