From the brand that brought you “people don’t want CarPlay”
GM Deprecating In-Car App Store for Models as Recent as 2020
11–20 of 58 posts
Re: GM Deprecating In-Car App Store for Models as Recent as 2020
#12This is the same company that plans to block Airplay and Android Auto no less.
Carplay, not Airplay, but yes.
Re: GM Deprecating In-Car App Store for Models as Recent as 2020
#13CarPlay/Android Auto is how you can get a modern infotainment system on a car that's a decade old. A new phone - a fraction of the cost of a new car - and you get access to all the new shiny stuff. That also means that people are less incentivized to upgrade a car that has CarPlay/Android Auto support - probably exactly the reason why GM wants to drop support for them.
I had a 2012 Toyota Camry once that I upgraded the stereo system so I could use CarPlay. Huge improvement. I think this is a really terrible move by GM considering all the people who have android and iPhones, why would you want this vehicle? It's a step backwards.
Re: GM Deprecating In-Car App Store for Models as Recent as 2020
#14Why isn't there still no HID or touch coordinate feedback feature in HDMI? That would solve this problem once and for all. There are Ethernet over HDMI, CEC(IR remote), ARC for audio, but not USB or touch. That seems like a mildly big oversight.
Re: GM Deprecating In-Car App Store for Models as Recent as 2020
#15CarPlay/Android Auto is how you can get a modern infotainment system on a car that's a decade old. A new phone - a fraction of the cost of a new car - and you get access to all the new shiny stuff. That also means that people are less incentivized to upgrade a car that has CarPlay/Android Auto support - probably exactly the reason why GM wants to drop support for them.
I had a 2012 Toyota Camry once that I upgraded the stereo system so I could use CarPlay. Huge improvement. I think this is a really terrible move by GM considering all the people who have android and iPhones, why would you want this vehicle? It's a step backwards.
Leas than zero sales is still zero? I don’t see the issue
Re: GM Deprecating In-Car App Store for Models as Recent as 2020
#16GM is removing CarPlay, and now this story that they are dropping support for in car infotainment apps for cars that are 5-7 years old. Are consumers really going to buy their cars? I won’t consider a new car that doesn’t offer CarPlay/android auto.
What's stopping someone from spending a few hundred bucks at their local custom stereo shop and replacing the head unit with something else that is less user hostile? If everything else in the car is what you need, just replace the part you don't like if it's not available as an option.
Re: GM Deprecating In-Car App Store for Models as Recent as 2020
#17GM is removing CarPlay, and now this story that they are dropping support for in car infotainment apps for cars that are 5-7 years old. Are consumers really going to buy their cars? I won’t consider a new car that doesn’t offer CarPlay/android auto.
What's stopping someone from spending a few hundred bucks at their local custom stereo shop and replacing the head unit with something else that is less user hostile? If everything else in the car is what you need, just replace the part you don't like if it's not available as an option.
These days the head unit has its tendrils wrapped around many parts of the car besides just infotainment, and wiring harnesses are a lot more proprietary. Does the aftermarket head unit support your car's parking sensors? How about the backup camera? Even the Homelink button that opens your garage door has migrated to the touchscreen in a lot of newer cars, never mind forehead-slapping features like the climate control settings.
The days of single- and double-DIN stereo swapping are slipping away fast. You're pretty much stuck with what you get when you buy the car, so it had better be what you want.
Re: GM Deprecating In-Car App Store for Models as Recent as 2020
#18GM tech management, If you wanna talk I'm here for you. Who is forcing your hand here.
Wall Street, by all accounts. For an unsexy old-school company like GM, the slightest possibility of achieving a recurring revenue stream and control of customer data flow is worth risking everything. It's all they have to offer their stockholders at this point.
At the same time, it's not really a question of "risking everything." After 2008-2009, GM understands that there is no way they will ever be allowed to fail as a company. They don't see much downside in alienating large swaths of their customer base, simply because there isn't much downside. They think they're in a good position to take stupid chances, and unfortunately they are not wrong.
Re: GM Deprecating In-Car App Store for Models as Recent as 2020
#19GM is removing CarPlay, and now this story that they are dropping support for in car infotainment apps for cars that are 5-7 years old. Are consumers really going to buy their cars? I won’t consider a new car that doesn’t offer CarPlay/android auto.
It’s not as “integrated” into the car, but if you just want CarPlay, there are cheap single-purpose “tablets” that mount to your dashboard and either pair to your car’s Bluetooth or plug into the Aux port and just do CarPlay/Android Auto. Amazon is full of them. Ultimately it’s just a video and touch transport protocol, with some additional channels like illumination and I hear speed on some models.
Re: GM Deprecating In-Car App Store for Models as Recent as 2020
#20GM is removing CarPlay, and now this story that they are dropping support for in car infotainment apps for cars that are 5-7 years old. Are consumers really going to buy their cars? I won’t consider a new car that doesn’t offer CarPlay/android auto.
I am so glad that I insisted on buying a car with CarPlay five years ago. At the time a number of our options did not have CarPlay, but were otherwise quite solid cars. If I'd gone with any of them I'd likely be a lot less happy than I am now: given that I use CarPlay on literally every drive, it's probably the single most important feature to have. I get that GM doesn't want to cede the important center console to t…
I agree with you that it's the wrong choice, but it's not just about ceding control. It's also about ceding the revenue.
For example, to connect their system to the internet, that'll be $20/mo. I'd guess GM gets a large portion of that revenue. If you're using CarPlay, there's no reason for you to buy their service.
It looks like GM makes around $1,000 in profit per vehicle. If half of their customers give them $20/mo for a decade, that's $1,200 in additional revenue. If AT&T takes half of that, it's still $600 which is a solid boost to their profits.
Now, you might say that fewer people would buy their cars and I'd agree - but companies make short sighted plays all the time that backfire. Someone does the kind of back of the envelope math that I did above and says "omg, I can increase our profits by 60% with this one easy trick" and it's wrong because the world doesn't work like that, but you put together some consultants and consumer surveys that are favorable and you get the green light.
I know: GM is just killing their relationship with consumers. I agree with you. But think about what Unity did to their developers. Unity saw the chance to charge a fee every time a game was installed and all the money that would bring - and didn't think about the predictable developer backlash. Companies do these types of things.