POINTABOUT CASE STUDY:
The Automotive Industry:
PointAbout Inc. COO Daniel
Odio chats with auto indus-
try expert Ty Beltramo about
how the auto industry can
get up to gear with mobile.
CAPTURING THE UNIVERSE
Ty Beltramo and his partner
started out making native
iPhone apps featuring astro-
nomical projections that
could track down where a
user was located in the world
– except the North or South
Pole - and then calculate
where the sun or moon was
in relation to the user. It also
featured details on moon
phases.
“That was a lot of heavy
math, a lot of trigonometry, a
lot of geometry to figure that
stuff out,” Ty said. Success
required keeping memory
small and making heavy
calculations fast. “We had to
calculate pieces of data every
10 minutes over a 28-day
period,” he said.
And the universe was just
where he started.
Ty started making high-
frame-rate old school arcade
games, as well as children’s
educational games. He also
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MOVING WITH MOBILE
made a Safari clone app that
allowed companies to report
all browser activity for a
person, thereby increasing
accountability at organiza-
tions.
Then he moved on to the
automotive industry, first
making an application for
the Chevy Cruze that enabled
sales staff to capture infor-
mation in the field, search
inventory, do basic configu-
ration and inventory search-
es mixing model and car
features, and then return a
list of all inventory, listed by
percent match, to the sales
and marketing department
that processed leads.
He didn’t stop there. He
made the iPhone Onstar
Experience app, which was
really two apps in one.
One part of the app allowed
a user to engage with and
connect to a Chevy Volt,
providing command and
control, charging options,
door lock/unlock, horn
honking, light flashing, and
location capabilities.
The second part of the app
engaged a user to a Chevy
Volt simulator so people
THE AUTOMOTIVE INDUSTRY: MOVING WITH MOBILE
could experience the app and
all the action of the first part
of the app without owning
the vehicle.
WHERE THE MOBILE INDUSTRY
IS HEADED... AND QUICKLY
“The number of people who
own smartphones - that
have browsing capability,
web capability and applica-
tion download capability – is
going from 90 million world-
wide today to 190 million
in three years,” Ty said. In
addition, industry leaders
are coming out with entirely
new class of mobile devices,
such as the iPad.
“People live in a connected
ecosystem,” said Ty, “and
that connected ecosystem
used to be tied to their home
computer or their work com-
puter, and now it’s follow-
ing people around in their
phone.”
As this transition occurs,
traditionally separate tech-
nologies are collapsing into
mobile devices – camera,
news reader, music/movie/
TV players, email, texting,
Twitter. “Just the range of
applications alone is stag-
gering,” Ty said, citing the
190,000 apps currently in
the App Store (the number
has risen to 225,000 since
publication of this article).
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“People are becoming more
and more connected, and all
that connectivity is starting
to revolve around the mobile
device as a nucleus – some-
thing they are putting in their
pocket.”
Ty says as the number of
people with smartphones
increases over time, network
capabilities will also improve.
And with that, consumers’
expectations will rise. Con-
sumers will demand more in
terms of how they are con-
nected, who they are con-
nected to and how they can
use data, he said.
“It’s not going to be about
texting,” Ty said. “It’s going
to be about communities
that are going to be formed
ad hoc out of data that we
haven’t even thought of yet.”
MOBILE AND THE
AUTOMOTIVE INDUSTRY
“The automotive space is
unique,” Ty said, “because
cars are meant to be in
motion, and location-based
services are becoming more
and more important.”
“The car generates a tremen-
dous amount of data that is
important to the person in
the car as well as to a whole
series of people who aren’t
in the car – including traffic,
2
road conditions, population
densities, and population
migration.”
Additionally, the car gives off
information about the heat
it generates, the pollution
particulates it gives off – “the
car knows all these things” –
and as people become more
eco-conscious, they will be
interested in capturing this
information, Ty said.
“You will see a bunch of
communities developing,”
Ty said. “People will relate to
each other in ways we’re not
thinking about today, such
as everyone who drives on a
certain stretch of highway at
a certain time of day - that
is a community, and those
people want to share infor-
mation about that trip.”
Additionally, navigation
“ought to become free,”
Ty said. “There is a whole
market segment - like Tom
Toms and Garmins - that
is going to disappear or be
fundamentally changed,”
Ty said. He said the iPad’s
turn-by-turn feature, for
use while docked in a car, is
already changing that.
“What people need to be
thinking about are what
kinds of things are going to
disappear or be assimilated
into this technology - like
turn-by-turn navigation and
THE AUTOMOTIVE INDUSTRY: MOVING WITH MOBILE 3

media streaming,” Ty said, centers around the mobile

“and how devices can col- device, not the car.” Car-
laborate with other devices.” makers need to accept that
their customers are bringing
CARS ARE PERIPHERALS their media, data contract
and applications into the car.
As the mobile device becomes
“If the auto manufacturers
the center of reality, other
can engineer new vehicle
objects in consumers’ lives
hardware properly so it can
will have to adapt accord-
adapt to the ever changing
ingly.
and ever evolving consumer
electronics industry, […then]
The biggest mistake busi-
the sky is the limit,” Ty said.
nesses make is thinking
that the mobile device is
For auto manufacturers, the
peripheral, when in actuality,
rapid evolution of the mobile
it’s the total opposite. The
world is difficult because
mobile device is the hub, not
consumer electronics such
the spoke. “You’re going to
as mobile devices can be
see the car be a huge periph-
developed at a faster rate
eral for mobile devices; it
than cars. “Cars may have a
is inevitable. It doesn’t take
fundamental disadvantage
much of a prophet to see it –
because it takes a long time
it’s happening now.”
to go from engineering to
production, so they cannot
The auto industry isn’t
compete with the rate of
immune to the mobile
change in the mobile space,
revolution and will need to
which is changing every six
start thinking of the car as
months,” Ty said.
a peripheral instead of the
mobile device, if the indus-
To deal with the long pro-
try wants to stay relevant,
duction cycles, car manufac-
Ty said. “The car drives and
turers will need to develop a
is designed to provide the
“delivery mechanism for what
function of transportation in
is happening on the mobile
a way that people enjoy being
device,” Ty said. The inte-
transported - and anything
gration of the mobile device
beyond that is peripheral to
to the car will require a flex-
it,” Ty explains, “but when a
ible interface that can accept
person gets in a car, the car is
changing mobile devices.
peripheral to the person and
The car will then feed
their mobile device, and that
information on the engine,
person’s idea of connectivity
transmission, brakes, etc.

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THE AUTOMOTIVE INDUSTRY: MOVING WITH MOBILE
to the mobile device via the
interface.
Carmakers need to focus on
providing capability instead
of applications themselves.
“Right now people are creat-
ing single-purpose boxes in
the factory,” Ty said. “They
need to get away from that.”
It will require a change of
thought; “the automotive
companies in a sense have
to give up control,” Ty said.
MOBILE STRATEGY FOR CAR
MANUFACTURERS:TY’S ADVICE
1. “Get a good partner.” “There
is a breadth of disciplines
that have to be mastered –
from social networking and
application and communi-
ties to software provision
distribution models, plus the
business side of monetizing
and marketing,” Ty said.
Ty cited Ford’s partnership
with Microsoft. Ford’s stra-
tegic partnership with Micro-
soft has allowed it to become
an industry technology
integration leader with SYNC
and Hohm, both powered by
Microsoft. Between SYNC,
and Hohm, a Ford driver
will be able to control their
mobile device via voice acti-
vation to get real time car
health data, traffic data, and
directions. They will also
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be able to make calls, read
and send texts, search and
play music all without ever
touching their mobile device.
The new electric cars, start-
ing with Ford’s Focus Electric
2011 models, will provide
drivers with key information
allowing them to plug in
their cars during non-peak
hours for more efficient and
more affordable recharging.
Ford and Microsoft are even
working with local utility
companies to create an entire
energy ecosystem.
2. “Start identifying and build-
ing key capabilities – software
distribution, building inte-
gration specs.”
Ty said these pieces would
not fall under the umbrella
of the automotive organiza-
tion, but should be done via a
joint venture that allows the
organization to be physically
and culturally isolated from
the manufacturing side.
Current developments in
speech recognition, internal
information projection onto
the mirror, dash and wind-
shield, hand-gesture recog-
nition, in-car cameras that
track drivers’ eye movement,
and other technologies can
make this area a designer’s
playground.
“Get them isolated from the
4
auto industry, give them
marching orders, and let
them create the culture,” Ty
said. “It’s not an automotive
project; it’s a project that has
an automotive element to it.
And its not a mobile project;
it’s a project that requires
mobile integration,” he said.
“Don’t be afraid to innovate,
to create something new and
independent that is free to
experiment and fail, to try
crazy things that might seem
insane,” Ty said. “Everyone
needs to be thinking about it,
but how they play in the space
depends on the company –
its character, its culture, and
its will,” Ty said. “I can’t think
of a [single] industry that
wouldn’t benefit from this.”
3. “Develop prototyping
capability. Test on a fleet,
then integrate feedback and
ideas.”
The auto industry typi-
cally cycles through a 36- to
54-month product develop-
ment cycle. “If you wait two
years, you’re going to have a
problem,” Ty said. “Ford will
be able to ride that wave as
acceleration in technology
continues to ramp up.” Com-
panies who start early will be
able to generate more veloc-
ity for themselves, while if
they start behind, they will
be lower on the momentum
curve. Prototyping allows a
THE AUTOMOTIVE INDUSTRY: MOVING WITH MOBILE 5

company to test new technol-

ogy with agility not afforded
in the typical industry cycle.

Much like consumers

demand side air bags and
anti-lock brakes today, pre-
viously seen as luxury add-
ons, consumers will start to
demand enhanced in-car
technological features, Ty
said. It will be crippling for
any automotive manufactur-
er to disregard the current
mobile movement and not
innovate.

As a last piece of advice, Ty

said, “Know your company. If
you don’t have the will, then
outsource it. If you can gen-
erate the faith and belief that
it is core to your business,
then make it core. Knowing
your customer is second only
to knowing your own prod-
ucts.”

“Everyone needs to be think-

ing about it, but how they
play in the space depends on
the company – its character,
its culture, its will,” Ty said.
“I can’t think of an industry
that wouldn’t benefit from
this.”

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