Market research firm iSuppli has released a report regarding the impact smartphones have had on automotive infotainment, a term describing their use as both a tool for information, such as maps and navigation, and entertainment, such as music and video playback.

The firm notes that Google”s implementation of free, high-quality navigation for Android has had a significant impact on the GPS industry, resulting in the lowering of prices on units across the board. They also mention that smartphone platforms, such as Android, have revolutionized the way music is listened to in the car, including the deployment of Internet radio services like Pandora.

According to iSuppli, we might even see Android and other mobile platforms being built right into vehicle dashboards, providing free and accurate navigation right on board.

Continue after the break for the full presser:

Already having impacted the automotive telephony, digital music and navigation segments, the smartphone is poised to have a greater influence on car infotainment systems in the future, according to market research firm iSuppli.

Smartphones already have been responsible for several developments in automotive infotainment.

The first mobile phone and smartphone impact came from hands-free telephone systems interfaced to car headunits and connected via Bluetooth. Such Bluetooth systems have now become very popular and are available either as optional or standard equipment, with the systems present on 93% of model year 2010 vehicles in the US and 75% of equivalent models in Western Europe. For smartphones, nearly 100% of units sold have Bluetooth features, while more than 80% of all mobile phones sold worldwide come with Bluetooth.

The smartphone has also become a leading source of digital music that is played via headunit audio components. The connections are mostly implemented via USB interfaces, Bluetooth (A2DP) and iPod or auxiliary interfaces.

The iPhone is the main smartphone music source because of its embedded iPod functionality. Likewise, the smartphone is having a major impact on portable navigation devices (PND) and on in-vehicle navigation systems. Off-board navigation service was the first area to be impacted, with both smartphones and select mobile phones using such services five years ago. The iPhone then became a major mobile navigation device in 2009, using both off-board and on-board navigation. Today, nearly all smartphones feature some navigation functionality at very competitive prices.

Navigating via phone

The next smartphone impact came with the introduction one year ago of free navigation functions on the Android operating system, a development that has caused the price of competing navigation devices to decline. The PND is suffering the greatest impact out of such an occurrence, and its importance has peaked-with worldwide sales declining or projected to ramp down in most regions in the years to come. As a result, PND manufacturers are moving into the in-vehicle navigation segment with low-cost PND-based systems, which in turn is putting price pressure on the suppliers of traditional in-vehicle navigation systems.

Connected navigation functionality is also emerging thanks to smartphone data plans, and navigation features such as traffic information, traffic probes, destination download and mobile search are now possible. Furthermore, smartphone apps featuring location based services are proliferating, with more than 6,000 now available for the iPhone.

Making footprints

The smartphone may be the agent of further impacts in the future, especially given the emergence of data plans and more headunit music sources, including Internet radio. Future infotainment hardware/software platforms may be based on smartphone hardware/software platforms, primarily Android, likely supplemented by the Genivi consortium’s MeeGo platform for Nokia high-end smartphones.

The smartphone also can act as a customer resource management (CRM) tool for auto OEMs and their dealers. A growing number of auto-centric smartphone apps are focused on car activities, including OBDII-based apps such as remote control of door locks, windows, air conditioning and engine start. Most electric vehicles also might be able to avail of smartphone apps for reading and controlling key EV parameters as well as finding stations for recharging. Additional impacts are likely to emerge in the future.

Impact on automotive headunits

Within the vehicle, the automotive headunit similarly is being shaped by smartphone platforms, with the impacts occurring in four major ways-via digital music sources, navigation sources, auto application sources and future headunit platforms. Of the four, the last may exert the longest-term impact. Terminal Mode is an example of a headunit-to-smartphone interface that will render the smartphone display on the headunit display.

The fourth trend also relates to the future use of smartphone-based platforms as the basis for the hardware/software architecture of headunits. Android-based platforms with additional auto-specific applications programming interfaces (APIs) are moving in this direction.

A long-term possibility also exists that the smartphone might become the computing and communication platform portion of the headunit. In such a case, the headunit would consist of mostly the human-machine interface (HMI) as well as the interfaces to other auto systems.

Several potential advantages can be obtained from this approach. Upgrading functionality would become flexible-assuming a new smartphone could replace the old version. Presumably, the driver will be able to buy his preferred smartphone, which not only would lower the infotainment system price but also would remove part of the revenue opportunity for headunit and auto suppliers. Just the same, this might only be viable for entry-level vehicles in order to keep new car prices low. Time will tell if this will become a viable infotainment system strategy.