Innovation in cars

I met my friend Mr. Martin Ertl, currently CIO of Bombardier Transportation in 2006 when he was the Head of Innovation Impulses at BMW. He stated to me in one of our conversations that the innovation in cars will now come from the outside. A quote from Martin in "Sectoral Innovation Leaders Showcasing" here is apropos:

"To set itself apart from its competitors, BMW created a decidedly dynamic and sportive image for its products, claiming to build the ‘Ultimate Driving Machine’. “A promise that has to be kept”, says Martin Ertl, Head of Innovation Impulses at the BMW Group Research and Innovation Centre (FIZ): “Without any doubt BMW sells lifestyle. But that’s only part of the story. Selling lifestyle doesn’t work without a product endowed with the appropriate technological substance.”"

Today, Martin's preemption at BMW helping it become the world's no. 1 luxury car brand, is going mainstream. RIM's PlayBook is getting integrated into cars. Cars are becoming an experience where there will be no discontinuity in comfort from home to car to office to car to dinning to car to home ...

See Wall Street Journal's article "RIM hopes cars drive PlayBook sales" here.