Bullet point breakdown for both CarPlay and satellite

Let's Get TechnicalCarPlay versus Satellite Radio You're buying a new car, It comes with Apple CarPlay, Android Auto, and satellite radio, The satellite radio is free for the first 6 months, Do you renew after that or just move to CarPlay? Since 1929, cars have had a broadcast radio installed. These began with AM, then FM, and now satellite radio. AM receives signals over a longer range but has less fidelity. FM receives signals over a shorter range but has higher fidelity, Satellite radio has virtually unlimited range together with even higher digital fidelity. In addition, the satellite signal allows for many more channels than either AM or FM. Since 1965 cars have also had an on-demand playback device installed. The first of these was 8-track tapes, followed by cassettes, then CDs, and finally MP3 players. More recently, cars have conceded that customers already have their music player built into their phones and so they only need to provide an interface to connect the phone to the car's speakers. CarPlay and Android Auto are both technologies that allow you to connect your phone either wired or wirelessly to the car's stereo. When connected, a driver-safe ver- sion of the phone's display appears on the car's dashboard, The functions available include music, navigation, voice calls, and messages from the phone. In this piece we will focus on the music. Most phone carriers offer virtually unlimited data. This means that you can stream music to your phone from a cloud service like Apple Music or Spotify wherever you have a cell signal. With the advent of LTE net- works and, most recently, 5G technology, that cell signal has become very fast. High speed means more bits per second to carry a high-quality music signal. So is there still a reason to pay for satellite radio? It depends. As of today, satellite radio still has more complete coverage, especially in rural areas. You turn the radio on, it works. That's no small advantage when a safety priority is to keep a driver's focus on the road. Strategic Performance Metrics 39 Over 80 percent of cars sold in the United States support Apple CarPlay, and 23 per- cent of consumers consider it a \"must have\" feature. There are still some challenges in using CarPlay, but that might not matter. Recall our three themes from earlier: 1. Superior content beats out a superior delivery platform. 2. Over time, the inferior delivery platform will catch up in quality. 3. Younger users drive these trends in two ways: a. 'Younger users tend to be more price sensitive. b. Younger users value constant connectivity. Let's start with content. Even with hundreds of channels, satellite radio still cannot com pete with the virtually limitless music content on a phone. The phone may have the music stored locally or may be streaming it over the cell network from a cloud service like Apple Music or Spotty. There are two aspects to music quality. The first is the quality of the user interface how easy is it to find and play the music that you want while driving. The second is the quality of the music itself. The fidelity of music played on a smartphone is already out standing. So the only real issue is the user interface. And unfortunately, this is a case of too many cooks in the kitchen. Most cars include their own wireless technology to interface with your phone. And here is where the problems begin. If your phone is simultaneously connected to CarPlay and the car manufacturer's system, then one of them has to win in a conflict. Typically, it will be the car manufacturer's system, which may not be what the user wants. In addition, the systems sometimes operate in unpredictable ways. For example, you may be on the phone when your friend, who has borrowed your car, drives up. The car senses the phone and immediately transfers the call away from you and inside the car. There is no doubt that all these interface issues will be resolved in the near future. At that point the intelligent and on demand features of the phone will tip the scales away from satellite radio. Because smartphones are computers with intelligent assistants, they enable voice com- mands. For example, \"Hey Siri, play music by Colbie Caillat.\" Note that this request makes use of intelligence to interpret the request and on-demand delivery to find and play the content. Because satellite radio is a broadcast rather than an on-demand medium, it cannot offer the same functionality. Young, price-sensitive users will not want to pay an additional monthly fee for satellite radio. Furthermore, they want to stay connected even while driving. The iPhone now uses GPS to sense when you are driving and shuts down texting to improve driver safety and comply with laws. That means that the only way to text and drive safely is by using the voice commands of CarPlay. And if CarPlay is already connected, then those users would naturally be inclined to use it for music as well. Finally, for those who are already iPhone users, the seamlessness of the Apple ecosystem across multiple apps and devices is likely to be a big draw. Still skeptical? On the most recent economy car bought by one of the authors, the ubiquitous CD player had been relegated to the glove compartment. This is hardly a con venient location for what used to be the marquee technology. Meanwhile, the CarPlay interface was prominently featured in the center console and touted as a major selling point by the dealer. Yes, the car also has satellite radio and a free 6-month trial. But after that