App-Connected vehicles could reach 20 percent of consumer cars in Western Europe and North America by 2017, research has suggested.
In its latest report into this sector, Juniper Research said the trend will be driven by new standards, stereos, head units and high smartphone ownership, which could fuel around 90 million connected cars within the next five years.
It added that the success of new standards such as MirrorLink will be instrumental in creating the foundations for the connected car ecosystem to flourish.
Although traditional embedded telematic services will go some way to pushing this trend, Juniper said that smartphone tethering and in-vehicle Apps would be the key drivers, and have a knock on effect on the price of vehicle manufacturers’ own embedded telematics infotainment services.
“Sky-high smartphone ownership and a standardised approach to integrating apps into the vehicle head-unit mean that the barriers to making the connected car a reality have all but gone,” said the report’s author Anthony Cox.
However he pointed out that there would be negative factors holding back the growth and that was slow development of the new vehicle market in developed economies.
