Ford SYNC Coming to Europe, AppLink Going Global

Ford has been the first auto maker to unveil a car at the Mobile World Congress this year in Barcelona. The new Ford C-MAX, is coming in 2012 to Europe as the first Ford model to embed Ford SYNC in Europe.

SYNC use voice commands to control USB/iPod Music plugged to the dashboard and Bluetooth hands-free calling. The U.S. car maker has also integrated free emergency calls in case of an accident. The system works with Android, iPhone and Blackberry.

Later on, SYNC will be introduced to other Ford car models, including Focus, Mondeo, Kuga, Fiesta and Transit. It is stil unclear if and when the car maker will introduce its off-board navigation and traffic system in Europe.

Ford forecasts to have 3.5 million Ford cars equipped with SYNC in Europeand 13 million globally in 2015, up from the 4 million cars currently on the market in the United States today.

Applink going global
Ford also announced that AppLink, a feature which delivers voice control of smartphone apps from the driver’s seat, will be introduced globally as part of SYNC.

With Applink APIs developer can use both text to speech and voice recognition technology built in the car, they can write information to the radio head display or touchscreen, command and control apps through eadio and steering wheel buttons and use vehicle data such as speed, GPS or fuel economy.

Ford currently has certified 7 apps to work with Applink:

- Stitcher – a mobile app for streaming radio shows and podcasts directly to smart phones
- TuneIn – an app allowing users to access live local and global radio on the move
- iHeart Radio – an app that allows users to access over 800 radio stations across America
- Slacker Radio – an app that controls personalised music and information content through free and subscription radio services
- OpenBeak – an app that allows users to have Twitter updates read out to them
- Pandora – An app that allows users to voice-activate their Pandora Internet radio stream including pausing and skipping songs
- Scout by TeleNav – a new daily personal navigator that allows drivers to easily and efficiently navigate their commutes, run errands, and discover places around them.

From these initial partners Ford is now looking at scaling its developer programme to additional apps worldwide.