Gadgets are cool and all (believe us, we love gadgets), but what good are they if they don’t play nice with your most expensive gadget -you car? With media-centric mobile phones and Digital Audio Players (DAPs) with massive storage, you can carry around all your favorite tunes wherever you go – especially while driving. To make it easier to groove to your favorite tracks and stay connected with your friends, Ford is rolling out in-car mobile integration for handsets and DAPs – the aptly-named “Sync” system. The Sync system is a collaboration with Microsoft Auto Software and will feature seamlessly integrated, voice-activated communications and entertainment system for mobile phones and DAPs.
Ford has announced the “Sync” option on new Focus, Edge, and Lincoln MKX models for $395 – slated for launch this Fall. Dearborn also aims to bring Sync to nine more models in their lineup by 2008. The option will combine “the car with a user’s cellular phone and portable music device, and it does so at a very affordable price point. We are speaking to the most connected and smartest consumers out there. With Sync as the foundation as we go forward, the possibilities for future user-experiences is limitless,” says Dr. K. Prasad Venkatesh, group and technical leader with Ford’s Infotronics Research and Advanced Engineering department.
We’re all for affordable phone and DAP integration for our cars. Now, if only we could get GPS navigation at that $395 price-point. Yea, that would be nice.
Ford press release.