Nokia and BMW Team Up to Add Apps to Cars
I’d never paid for a cell phone in my entire life before this month, when I bought an Android-powered phone through my service provider. I had always just gotten whatever phone came free with a two-year contract, and I distinctly remember avoiding phones with cameras and MP3 players in them because, you know, I really just wanted a phone, not some sort of technological Swiss Army knife.
But the Droid was too sweet to pass up, so I splurged and haven’t regretted it in the month or so since making the purchase. This little handheld device does darn near anything, from running GPS directions for driving and walking and public transportation, to browsing the internet, playing music, streaming video, counting calories, identifying constellations, analyzing art, and even making phone calls. It’s the single best piece of technology ever invented, in my humble opinion. There’s nothing you could do to make it better.
Unless…
Unless you could drive it. That’s what Belmont BMW dealerships are holding their breath for, at least, and in a recent press release from Nokia, it looks as though BMW and a few partner automakers will try and get a system to integrate these high-tech cell phones into the workings of the car.
A BMW dealership in Belmont could, for example, potentially sell you an automobile that syncs up to the phone and runs all those apps for you. It could play your music, run the GPS application, and even come up with apps of its own that keep tabs on the inner workings of the vehicle. People spend so much time in their cars nowadays; something like this would only make the experience easier and more enjoyable. If I think I love my phone now, just wait until it becomes part of my car!
And that’s the beauty of technology. You don’t think you need anything more than a simple phone or a simple car, but when you start surrounding yourself with the possibilities that these brilliant engineers are coming up with, it’s hard to remember what life was like without them. To think, I didn’t want a phone that had a camera. They don’t even make those anymore, do they? In time, there won’t be cars without apps. And we’ll remember that BMW was right there for the start of the new trend.
