The connected car market will produce revenues exceeding US$600 million by 2020, with Apple’s CarPlay and Google’s Android Auto gaining traction, according to a new Juniper Research study.
The 2020 figure represents a 10-fold increase over 2016’s expected revenues, with Juniper forecasting that, as CarPlay and Android Auto become firmly established, a wave of new applications will become available.
Such applications will be specifically designed for in-vehicle use, such as advanced traffic solutions, route optimisation and in-vehicle gaming.
Juniper additionally forecasts that “on-board systems with integrated wireless functionality will eventually push ahead of systems requiring the presence of a smartphone”.
“OEMs will seize the opportunity of greater independence, better integration with other in-vehicle systems, by including directly integrated units such as Apple CarPlay, Android Auto and BlackBerry’s QNX,” Juniper states.
OTT (over-the-top) players, such as Apple, Amazon and Google, are set to play an increasingly central role in the development of the connected car, with Juniper pointing to Apple and Google’s activities in the autonomous driving systems as key developments.
The connected car and the smart home space are also merging, as shown by the recent announcement that Amazon’s voice-controlled smart home service, Echo, will be able to interact with Ford’s Sync in-vehicle system.
Juniper argues that “the swathe of new OTT services will bring with it the challenge of high consumer expectations”.
“Apple and Google are set to deliver a new application ecosystem for the vehicle environment, where consumers are able to download new services and functionalities directly through the head unit,” Juniper states.
“As they compete in this new space, end users will expect similar levels of speed, functionality and features that they experience in the smartphone ecosystem.”
