In another example of information going portable and on demand, auto giant Ford Motor Company announced today that it will begin offering Microsoft's mobile data system in its cars beginning early next year.
Just when you thought a multitasking driver clutching a Blackberry was all you could handle... (Full disclosure: guilty, your honor.)
The new system, called "Sync" will let motorists download information to car-based and mobile computing devices including music, email, real-time traffic data and more.
Think of it as a lightweight mobile internet access point built right into your car with extreme ease of use, similar to some of today's hands-free bluetooth audio systems for mobile phones. It reportedly creates a mini wireless network for digital devices to talk to each other inside your car.
If it's simple enough to use, mobile data systems in-car could make it big. Imagine downloading new albums or time-shifted radio shows on demand to your car stereo on a long road trip. Or (eventually) grabbing the latest Disney animated flick for the kids to watch in the back seat. Or even hunting down the cheapest gas prices nearest to your location.
Once these new mobile pipelines to audiences are installed and operational, we can bet that marketers will soon follow. The next time you drive by your local Taco Bell, you could be hit with an instant mobile message offering discounts off products along with a gentle reminder that it's lunch time (and that their products are, above all, safe to eat).
As always, it's up to us to figure out creative uses for new technology that add value to consumers. If marketers push too hard or too fast with these new channels without adding something audiences want or need, technologies like this might die on the vine before they ripen. The best applications of this new potential access to audiences will see companies provide a valuable service to consumers -- not just unwanted, pushed marketing messages. They have to be tailored to individual interests and needs.
Years ago, many wrote that email would fundementally change direct marketing. And in some ways, it did. But ever since email hit the mainstream, over-zealous marketers stumbled over themselves to bastardize it without adding value. They sold consumer lists for unsolicited email to spammers far and wide, starting "phishing" for bank account information illegally, and partially detroyed email marketing's potential as an effective marketing communications channel.
Still, it's an exciting time when new technologies like this continue to make information -- and those we try to reach with it -- more and more accessible.