• by Steve Smith , Staff Writer @popeyesm, May 1, 2013

This is one of those Apple rumors I am pretty sure Apple did not plant.  9to5Mac’s Mark Gurman reports that iOS 7 may include hooks that help the operating system integrate more deeply into the car dashboard. That's right -- Apple’s dubious mapping system introduced in iOS 6 to replace Google Maps could be your GPS system in the next generation of cars. Stop the car, right now!

Gurman reports that Apple is in talks with automakers to make the car’s control scheme compatible with iOS so that Siri and maps can become integrated and provide directions and other voice-activated services to appear on the dash’s built-in display. Siri would be the interface for maps as well as other phone functions.

Apple is already working with a number of automakers to more easily integrate hands-free (“Eyes-Free Siri) iPhone functionality into the console, but this runs deeper. And it could lead to Apple trying to become a competing in-car telematics system.

Yeah, well -- they need to beef up both Siri and Maps before they get there. On a number of recent trips my wife and I had occasion to compare Google and Apple maps. Apple still has trouble finding a lot of locations Google gets with ease. Still, this must have been an idea that Apple was cooking before iOS6 was launched. The 3D mode for turn-by-turn directions already has an oversized arrow and street markers that seem ready to leap onto your GPS in-car display. And Siri, bless her hard-of-hearing heart, is really better suited to hands-free environments than public uses of the phone.

The in-car context presents an interesting use case in relation to other media. It seems to me there is a real battle of branding to be had here. There is a general question of whether consumers will want to associate their in-car media experiences with the personal operating systems and personalized apps they bring with them. Or is this a space that the car manufacturer rightly owns?

This is a bit like the war over the living room. There are incumbents (MSOs) that seem to have a special claim on the space for legacy reasons, but they seem to lack the media and tech savvy to pull it off as well as many apps and migrating Web services. Do consumers identify a new set of providers and brands with interactive media and so gravitate to them rather than watch the incumbents limp toward solutions?

It seems to me an open question whether consumers think the car brands have a real claim on the entertainment, data, and utility experience in the car. They never really did before this. And when it comes to many of these services, don’t the consumers believe they are the ones who own the space? Should the car technology best serve them by enabling a seamless experience from the wireless environment and choices they have established outside of the car cabin?

My guess is that the mobile OSes have a long-term advantage here. As fragmentation of media escalates, the emphasis will be on media environments that the user has honed over time, manages and cultivates and (most importantly) brings with him. The mobile phone will be the media identity device we expect to plug into different contexts. We will carry with us not only the media, identity and tastes we want projected into different contexts -- we will also have an interface with which we are most comfortable.

I suspect the winners will be the companies that enable and empower true portability, not the ones that make us relearn how to get directions or turn on our favorite music on every platform.