Back in June Apple announced the “ios in the car” initiative, before that Microsoft worked with Ford to create Sync, and now Google is getting in on the game with their Open Automotive Alliance (OAA). To me I this could truly be something special. Tech Crunch’s Natasha Lomas recently wrote a post about how Google is making a late addition to the party and how Apple already has a larger group of companies affiliated with the initiative. This might be true, but lets look back on what happened with the phone industry. Apple came first with the iPhone, but then Google came along with the Open Handset Alliance and the collaboration of many different device makers and programmers came up with a user interface that dominates in market share and allows for the users to have different manufacturers of hardware.

For phones the experience is a little different in that, for the most part, the customer chooses who the manufacturer is. They can buy an Apple phone or a Motorola phone, but with cars customers don’t really have that choice. With cars the customer only chooses who made the car as a whole, not the stereo system or computer chip. The decision of who makes the stereo or who makes the computer chip is based on whom the car manufacturer can get the best contract with and fits the best with the car. This is why I think that Google will be so successful in this realm, the open platform allows the car companies to have freedom in who they choose to buy their parts from and this flexibility is something they covet.