According to Telefonica, today’s Connected Car market is largely made up of “aftermarket devices” — devices used for services like “navigation, usage-based insurance, stolen vehicle recovery (SVR), and infotainment.” By 2020, however, Machina Research expects that 90% of new cars will feature a built-in connectivity platform. That’s up from about 10% today, and that figure’s only going to keep rising. By 2022, there will be 700 million Connected Cars on the road and 1.1 billion aftermarket devices in use.
In just the next few years, Internet-enabled car companies can capitalize on the Internet of Things to do much more than connect cars to the web, paving the way for automated functionality on a much higher level. The collision of the automotive and mobile industries will revolutionize not just driving, but the way our society operates.
Among many lifestyle changes, Connected Cars create a new relationship between customers and physical stores, bearing implications at the intersection of local, social, and mobile marketing forces. Customers driving by physical stores could receive relevant notifications from their car thanks to a visit to the company website in the past week, or maybe even a recent comment on the brand’s Facebook page.
The West just keeps getting wilder for today’s business leaders, but the importance of an increasingly dynamic, omni-channel marketing platform comes to the fore. There are kinks to resolve, but compromises are in the works and changes are imminent. Whether they’re smoothing the transition to Connected Cars or just along for the ride, marketers should take inspiration from the futuristic present and prepare to navigate the Internet of Things.