Skype for Business Introduced to Volvo 90 Series Models

Is it me or is that one of the most useless things one could have in a car? What is the purpose of integrating Skype for Business in the car, even though any phone out there can run Skype for Business? Ask yourself these two seemingly simple questions, knowing that a phone connects to a car’s infotainment system via Bluetooth for hands-free calls and other whatnots.

Volvo, for its part, tries to convice us that phones running Skype for Business are yesterday’s news. “We’ve all been there. Sitting in the car trying to join a conference call. You either fumble with or drop your phone while trying to connect or you forget the long pin code to join,” said Anders Tylman-Mikiewicz, vice president of consumer connectivity services at Volvo.

“It’s not the best way to start an important call in the car. On top of all that your attention is not where it should be – on the road," he concluded. I’m sorry but I’m not buying that PR talk. As a marketing trick for those people millennials refer to as workaholics, though, Volvo might have hit gold.

Ericsson, meanwhile, is the company that provides the cloud-based solutions needed by Volvo to lure suit-wearing young professionals into a 90 Series model. As in-car communication evolves, the cloud is believed to be the best solution to making life easier for people who are always on the move. Or people who can't draw a line between their professional and personal lives.

If I may add, seeing the car transform into a mobile office is something I, and probably most drivers out there, don’t really fancy. But if this is the way forward and what the people want, we can’t say no, can’t we?