Steve Jobs pitches Chrysler
The brave guys at Engadget are live at MacWorld today, and did a live blogcast of Steve Job's keynote address (aka the Stevenote) this morning - still going on as I write this.
Before he got to the new tech for the Mac faithful, Steve dropped a couple of news bits of automotive interest.
First, Apple sold 14,000,000 iPods - in the last quarter! Jobs pointed out that this amounts to a hundred iPods sold every minute, 24/7, for the entire quarter. Incredible.
Finally, Steve closed the iPod section of his speech with a shout out to Chrysler's iPod interface announcement at NAIAS, "For those of you that missed it at the Detroit Auto Show, Chrysler is the first American manufacturer to offer iPod integration on their models. In 2006 over 40% of the cars sold in 2006 will offer iPod integration."
I wonder how long it will be before every new car has an iPod interface? And if I sold in-car CD changers, I'd start looking for new employment now, to beat the rush.
Full Engadget coverage of the Stevenote here, and of course, over at all-Apple-all-the-time TUAW, here.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Mike 5:53PM (1/10/2006)
"I wonder how long it will be before every new car has an iPod interface? And if I sold in-car CD changers, I'd start looking for new employment now, to beat the rush."
I don't have BMW's iPod interface. I had BMW install an auxilary input into the glove box of my 545 over a year ago. Since then I haven't once used either the cd player in my dash or the disc changer in the back of glove box.
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Chris Kivi 1:01AM (1/11/2006)
Steve Jobs is simply a brilliant guy, and surrounds himself with an outstanding team of product artists/creators. Apple's still don't crash like PC's and with Firefox, why does anybody still care about the Windows PC? Oh yea, it's because Microsoft/HP and Dell saturated the market with HoHum products. Well wait till you see what Jobs unveils this summer!
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Galley 6:58AM (1/11/2006)
The integrated iPod holder on the Dodge Caliber is looking sweet. Add to that, the flip-down speakers on the tailgate, and you have a real party wagon!
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Michael Bakshi 12:34PM (1/11/2006)
If I was to get a Dodge Caliber, I probably wouldn't have the money to get an ipod myself.
Anyways, I've put an indash mp3 player in my current car, I don't see why people should be forced to pay extra for the ipod accessory (since its a standard option).
Some people aren't even gonna use it.
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Lithous 9:29PM (1/13/2006)
1. Chrysler isn't American.
2. Jobs probably loves Mercedes and so it was a natural extension to make sure one of their divisions has ipod connections
3. The 2006 Saturn VUE has an aux input that works fine with the ipod. It just isn't proprietary like Apple likes. You heard, Apple charges for the proprietary cable to put video onto tv from the ipod video. Turns out this $20 proprietary cable is just RCA cables in the "wrong" order from that of the same generic cable.
If GM ripped you off like that you'd cry bloody murder. When Apple does it you just want to bend over for Jobs charisma to impale you.
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