Posted by chicagomedia.org on October 21, 2008 at 12:39:52:
Karmazin: Merged Technology Years Away
Speaking at Monday's Convergence 2008 conference hosted by Chrysler in Detroit, Sirius XM Radio CEO Mel Karmazin said that in-car technology merging Sirus & XM could be up to 15 years away. According to Autoweek, Karmazin presided over a Q&A session, in which he said that while the companies have merged, their technology has yet to. Combining the technology for both companies and installing it in new cars could take up to 15 years, due to the creation of new chips and lead time for automakers.
However, Orbitcast notes that on Sirius' Q2 conference call, Karmazin gave a much shorter time frame. When asked about interoperable radios in vehicles, he said that the automakers "control the dashboard, so they can decide if they want it or they don't want it, and if they do want it, you should assume it will probably take about three years for them to integrate it, since that's the lead time that most of these options take before the car companies are willing to put it into production."
At the conference, Karmazin also discussed the merging of both companies' services and relationships with automakers. "Building on the success of our audio entertainment and technology infrastructure, we can bring the relationship to a strategic level by partnering with OEMs to position new-vehicle launches with differentiating Sirius XM features, such as Sirius Traffic with Chrysler, XM Traffic and real-time weather with Honda, Sirius Backseat TV with Chrysler and Sirius Travel Link with Ford," Karmazin said, according to Autoweek.
"There’s all kind of content out there. At the end of the day, I think that the consumer is in a great position because people are going to listen to what it is that interests them," he added. "We are laserlike-focused on making sure that there is nobody out there that's going to come close to having the content that we do."
(FMQB)