BMW won't be ditching its iDrive multimedia platform in favour of Apple's recently announced iOS in the Car innitiative.
However, it is investigating whether it can be integrated alongside iDrive.
So says UK car blog ArnoldClark.com. "We have such an advanced multimedia offering that has been in vehicles in various guises for more than a decade [that] it would not be that straightforward to start changing all of the architecture of a car as has been implied [by Apple]," BMW said.
BMW also questioned how realistic it is to expect rapid, widespread adoption of iOS in the Car, pointing out that investment and development cycles for cars are very lengthy compared with, say, smartphones or tablets.
In fact, this is actually a developing story. US site Autoblog says when it contacted BMW, it was told that iOS in the Car was being investigated for integration and no final decision had been made.
Anyway, the question, therefore, is will it be a good or bad thing for BMW if it does indeed do its own thing and reject iOS in the Car? It's certainly an interesting move given that BMW has been one of the most aggressive adopters of in-car iPhone integration up to this point.
In fact, the argument for and against iOS in the Car and similar approaches to in-car multimedia are not only finely balanced. They go right to the heart of the very future of in-car technology, as we'll explain in full tomorrow.
As it happens, we've recently had a play with the latest and greatest version of BMW ConnectedDrive. Keep your scanners peeled for our video hands-on soon.
