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Mercedes has decided that it’s going to do a Mobile TV solution for the Italian car market – the Mercedes Classe B Special Edition, of which there are only going to be 500, is being sold in collaboration with Sky Italia, and Garmin (the Sat Nav manufacturer).
So on board the car is a Garmin Nuvi 900 T GPS receiver, enabled with DVB-H. This makes it able to receive 14 Sky Mobile TV channels, as well as a bunch of others. Apparently those that get the car before March 31, will also get a free one-year subscription to Sky Italia, at home AND on-board the the car!! As a retro-fit, the kit is also going to be sold for about 700 Euros – yowzer.
Overall it’s a nice idea – my view is that car manufacturers need to come up-to-date with their Mobile tech, and it seems here that Mercedes are going bleeding edge with it. Italy is one of the few live, and successful DVB-H markets, so to leverage inside of a popular brand is a nice move. Hopefully the car has Bluetooth integrated too, which is a major bugbear of mine in that most manufacturers for some reason don’t include something that’s only £100 to retro-fit! Come on now!
[Via: Broadband TV News]
About The Author
Ben Robinson
Ben is a 10+ year veteran of the Mobile industry – starting his career when SMS was a still a relatively new concept for most people (!), he has now consulted on everything from bleeding-edge Mobile content, to the next-gen accessories you might view it on. As a result he has a broad and deep knowledge in numerous areas of Mobile – from network operators to device vendors, to infrastructure and middleware vendors (not to mention content delivery) – and has worked for companies in all of these areas! He is based in the UK, a hotbed of activity for mobile, and recently became a father for the second time – as oppose to in his younger years when he was happy spend time tweaking all manner of mobile devices to 'nth' degree, he now looks for services and hardware that provide the most efficient, compact, and reliable improvements to his already manic life! It’s his opinion that Mobile solutions should be there to help to make your life better – if a particular solution (be it service or device) isn’t doing this, he believes you need to ask the very important question of why you continue to use it... His focus at IntoMobile is mainly on Mobile content, services, and infrastructure, particularly as regards the UK market – and with the occasional look at devices. Additionally, using his extensive experience in the industry, he will provide commentary on the industry at large, with regular (and hopefully thought-provoking) articles.
