Microsoft adds navi to Blue & Me
In the Fiat stand at the Frankfurt Auto Show Wednesday morning (September 12) Microsoft and Fiat said they are expanding Blue & Me to include navigation. Martin Thall, general manager of Microsoft’s Automotive Business Unit, said a market opportunity exists between factory-installed navigation systems in the €1,500-2,000 price range and portable navigation devices. In a Fiat 500 the firms demonstrated what appeared to be a factory-installed navi display screen attached to the dashboard via a short tube. In fact, the display is a portable device and the tube is the visible portion of a docking station set into a special socket in the dash. Blue Map is only available in Europe at the moment and only as configured; however, a Fiat spokeswoman confirmed the obvious - that Microsoft and Fiat will encourage portable navi display vendors to build or adapt units to fit the docking station and socket. It looks cool and it makes sense.
