Your Dashboard Will Soon Become the “Fifth Screen”
We spend a lot of time in front of screens: TV, computer, mobile phone and tablet. Your car’s dashboard will be your next screen.
Check out this bit of prognostication from Radio Ink:
The digital dashboard, now being called the consumers’ “fifth screen” (after TV, the computer, the smartphone, and the tablet) is quickly becoming a must-have feature when consumers purchase a new vehicle. Americans have become a people who honestly believe they must be connected at all times, and it’s a way of life automakers are incorporating as they build new vehicles. The smartphone has not only changed the way people behave every day, it’s revolutionizing the way cars are built. Consumers expect their cars to do everything their smartphones can do.
On the infotainment front, if a smartphone displays album art, a dashboard “radio” must show album art. If a smartphone can tell me what song is playing, show it to me in the car, too. If I can use one click to purchase a track I love, get that on my dash. If you’re running a radio station that’s not on the HD Radio bandwagon, good luck with that.
And good luck competing with Pandora, iHeartRadio, aHa, and the many other content providers consumers are warming to. They all want a place on the dash too, and auto manufacturers are happy to oblige.
iBiquity Digital CEO Bob Struble spends a lot of time convincing radio this is the right path to travel. He’s been at it from the beginning. He also spends a lot of time, on radio’s behalf, in front of the automotive world, showing off the strengths of your business to an industry now being bombarded with content that’s getting easier and easier to install.
