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Mercedes to introduce new iPhone-centric infotainment

Mercedes to introduce new iPhone-centric infotainment

At the Mercedes-Benz TecDay 2011 event in Germany, Mercedes revealed its concept infotainment system, @yourCommand, a voice- and gesture-controlled cloud-based system in the F 125 research vehicle. While that system is a few years away from being integrated into production vehicles, Mercedes also announced that in a few months it will begin selling a new infotainment option developed specifically for the iPhone.

Mercedes didn’t provide much detail about the future infotainment system except to say that it will leverage the iPhone’s processing power “to create a revolutionary user interface with fluent transitions and animation.” The car maker also said that various iPhone information and functionality will be displayed on the in-dash display, and will be accessed using the COMAND controller.

Earlier this year Mercedes released a video of the A-Class concept’s infotainment system, which appears to be designed around the iPhone. The concept system accesses social media and entertainment applications, and the graphics of the system are a lot more, um, flamboyant than the restrained COMAND Online system. Daimler chairman Dieter Zetsche is slated to deliver a keynote address at the 2012 Consumer Electronics Show, which would be an obvious place and time to reveal a new iPhone-centric infotainment system.

While Mercedes appears to be doubling down on the iPhone infotainment option, other platforms aren’t being entirely ignored. The car maker also announced that in 2013 it will implement MirrorLink to support the seamless integration of Nokia, HTC, and Samsung smartphones with COMAND. For the moment, smartphone integration is limited to the Media Interface Plus (MIP) and Mbrace iPhone application. Mercedes will also introduce Near Field Communications smartphone pairing in COMAND in 2013.

[Thanks: http://reviews.cnet.com]

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