A fifth of all consumer vehicles in North America and Western Europe - around 90 million cars - are expected to have app-capable multimedia systems by 2017, according to a new report from Juniper Research. This growth is expected to be driven by increased smartphone penetration and improvements to in-car entertainment units.

Full details of the announcement are below.

App-Connected Vehicles to Reach 20% of Consumer Cars in Western Europe and North America by 2017

New Standards and High Smartphone Ownership to Spur US and Western European App Connected Cars to 90 Million in Five Years

A new report from Juniper Research has found that advancements in entertainment head-units and higher smartphone penetration will result in App-capability reaching a fifth of all consumer vehicles in the developed markets of North America and Western Europe by 2017. The success of new standards such as MirrorLink will be instrumental in creating the foundations for the connected car ecosystem to flourish, finds the report.

Downward Price Pressure

Though Juniper Research also forecasts robust growth in more traditional embedded consumer telematics services, the success of smartphone tethering and in-vehicle Apps is expected to exert downward pressure on the price of vehicle manufacturers’ own embedded telematics infotainment services.

The report notes that “Big Data” derived from telematics service provision is also likely to emerge as an unexpected revenue driver for telematics companies and automotive manufacturers.

Barriers to Deployment Now Gone

"Sky-high smartphone ownership and a standardised approach to integrating apps into the vehicle head-unit mean that the barriers to making the connected car a reality have all but gone," says the report’s author Anthony Cox.  The report notes that the only factor holding back even faster deployment of in-vehicle Internet will be slow growth in the new vehicle market itself in developed economies.

Further Findings from the Report Include:

• Consolidation within the commercial fleet telematics space has yet to run its course, though ultimately global fleet telematics players are likely to emerge from today’s front-runners
• Trials of V2V (vehicle to vehicle) and vehicle to infrastructure (V2I) are on-going in some markets, although wide-spread deployment remains a long way off
• Insurance telematics is reaching the point of wide-scale deployment particularly in certain markets such as the US, Italy and the UK

Commercial Telematics, meanwhile, will spread to smaller commercial vehicle classes, driven by potential efficiency gains and proven cost-savings.

The whitepaper, ‘Connected Cars ~ Full Speed Ahead’ and further details of the full study Connected Cars: Automotive Telematics & In-Vehicle Infotainment 2013-2017 can be downloaded from www.juniperresearch.com.

Juniper Research provides research and analytical services to the global hi-tech communications sector, providing consultancy, analyst reports and industry commentary.