case study
Over 80 percent of cars sold in the United States support Apple CarPlay, and 23 percent of consumers consider it a “must have” feature. There are still some challenges in using CarPlay, but that might not matter. Recall our three themes from earlier:
- Superior content beats out a superior delivery platform.
- Over time, the inferior delivery platform will catch up in quality.
- Younger users drive these trends in two ways:
a. Younger users tend to be more price sensitive.
b. Younger users value constant connectivity.
Let’s start with content. Even with hundreds of channels, satellite radio still cannot compete with the virtually limitless music content on a phone. The phone may have the music stored locally or may be streaming it over the cell network from a cloud service like Apple Music or Spotify.
There are two aspects to music quality. The first is the quality of the user interface— how easy is it to find and play the music that you want while driving. The second is the quality of the music itself. The fidelity of music played on a smartphone is already outstanding. So the only real issue is the user interface. And unfortunately, this is a case of too many cooks in the kitchen.
Most cars include their own wireless technology to interface with your phone. And here is where the problems begin. If your phone is simultaneously connected to CarPlay and the car manufacturer’s system, then one of them has to win in a conflict. Typically, it will be the car manufacturer’s system, which may not be what the user wants.
In addition, the systems sometimes operate in unpredictable ways. For example, you may be on the phone when your friend, who has borrowed your car, drives up. The car senses the phone and immediately transfers the call away from you and inside the car.
There is no doubt that all these interface issues will be resolved in the near future. At that point the intelligent and on demand features of the phone will tip the scales away from satellite radio.
Because smartphones are computers with intelligent assistants, they enable voice commands. For example, “Hey Siri, play music by Colbie Caillat.” Note that this request makes use of intelligence to interpret the request and on-demand delivery to find and play the content. Because satellite radio is a broadcast rather than an on-demand medium, it cannot offer the same functionality.
Young, price-sensitive users will not want to pay an additional monthly fee for satellite radio. Furthermore, they want to stay connected even while driving. The iPhone now uses GPS to sense when you are driving and shuts down texting to improve driver safety and comply with laws. That means that the only way to text and drive safely is by using the voice commands of CarPlay. And if CarPlay is already connected, then those users would naturally be inclined to use it for music as well. Finally, for those who are already iPhone users, the seamlessness of the Apple ecosystem across multiple apps and devices is likely to be a big draw.
Still skeptical? On the most recent economy car bought by one of the authors, the ubiquitous CD player had been relegated to the glove compartment. This is hardly a convenient location for what used to be the marquee technology. Meanwhile, the CarPlay interface was prominently featured in the center console and touted as a major selling point by the dealer. Yes, the car also has satellite radio and a free 6-month trial. But after that . . .
READ CASE STUDY AND FIND THE SOLUTIONS FOR CARPLAY AND THE SOLUTIONS FOR SATELLITE RADIO. 2 SLIDES IN TOTAL