What Happened?
Yesterday the GENIVI Alliance unveiled its Member Compliance Program, and announced that four GENIVI members – Canonical, Mentor Graphics, MontaVista Software, and Wind River – are the first to offer GENIVI-compliant platforms for in-vehicle infotainment (IVI) systems.
VDC’s View
IVI has become a key differentiator among automotive manufacturers in recent years, with OEMs introducing innovative IVI capabilities to enhance the user experience – for both drivers and passengers – with regard to communication, navigation, and other audio/video entertainment. From a software standpoint, Microsoft (customers: Alfa Romeo, Fiat, Ford, Lincoln, Mercury) and QNX (customers: Acura, Audi, BMW, Chrysler, GM, Hyundai, Land Rover, Porsche, Saab) have been the most prominent players in this space. However, considerable competition has been generated by the open source community, as has been the case in many other embedded markets.
The GENIVI Alliance was launched in early 2009 to enable collaboration among automakers, suppliers, and technology providers across the automotive ecosystem in order to streamline the development and support of open source IVI solutions. Among GENIVI’s 120+ members are major automakers such as BMW, GM, Honda, Hyundai, Jaguar Land Rover, Mitsubishi, and Nissan, as well as many leading embedded software vendors, including Green Hills Software, Mentor Graphics, MontaVista, and Wind River.
Yesterday’s announcement represents the long-awaited arrival of potentially compelling, industry-backed alternatives to the platforms traditionally provided by Microsoft and QNX. With GENIVI-compliant solutions finally available, VDC expects significant jockeying to take place among ISVs serving the IVI market. While Windows Automotive customers are not members of GENIVI, several of QNX’s customers in this space – BMW, GM, Hyundai, and Land Rover – are active participants in the Alliance and will almost certainly be compelled to deploy GENIVI-compliant platforms in some of their models due to the considerable time and effort invested in this initiative. VDC believes that QNX must maintain or strengthen its focus and dedication to the automotive space, despite having many of its resources pulled toward the consumer electronics and mobile spaces as a part of RIM, or risk losing ground in an increasingly competitive market.
Meanwhile, it will be interesting to follow how the four vendors with GENIVI-compliant platforms will differentiate their solutions to promote adoption by GENIVI-aligned automakers, and as a result which of these platforms introduced yesterday will gain the most traction. Furthermore, how will the presence of Canonical, which has no traditional involvement in the embedded space, affect the competitive landscape in this market?
Another compelling storyline is the presence of Green Hills Software, which announced in June that it too had joined GENIVI. Green Hills’ role in the IVI market, which may or may not eventually include its own solutions that enable GENIVI-compliant platforms as part of a larger automotive system (i.e. through the INTEGRITY Multivisor), may provide a further jolt to competition in this space.
With competition among IVI platform providers expected to intensify, the clear winners are consumers, who can now expect the continual and rapid advancement of their automotive infotainment experience.
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