"I suspect it will not be car companies but actually someone like Apple or Facebook who will successfully challenge the car manufacturers, " says Leech.
Innovative technology designed to aid the integration of the Apple iPhone into the car gives owners the option to access a wide range of updates and extended services.
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Functions integrated into the car via an Apple iPhone can be operated using the joystick, the steering wheel buttons or the on-board monitor.
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Apple announced its in-car, Eyes Free version of Siri last June and nearly every major manufacturer has shown a willingness to support it.
Peter-Frans Pauwels, TomTom's co-founder and CTO, demonstrated TomTom's navigation software in combination with a specially designed car kit on the iPhone- during Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco on June 8th, 2009.
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More recently with the iPhone, Apple once again changed the rules of the in-car infotainment game.
Top of the pile is Aston Martin, James Bond's car-maker of choice, followed by Apple and motorbike designer Harley Davidson.
This svelte car, painted the deep mauve of a ripe red apple, mesmerizes.
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As well as selling metal and a power unit they could bolster revenues by selling car and travel apps to go alongside all those downloads from Apple and Android.
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What makes this outlook for the Connected Car even more interesting to me is that GM is working with Apple to bring Siri to the new infotainment systems in the Chevrolet Spark and Sonic.
But just as Google came back with Glass and the driverless car, and updated their innovation reputation (and share price), so too Apple will return.
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It is already possible to buy a piece of kit that plugs into a car's engine-management system and sends data to an application on an Apple iPhone.
Conventional wisdom says Apple's iPad doesn't belong on boats, mountainous trails or strapped into makeshift holsters on car dashboards.
Long-term Apple shareholders will just have to console themselves with a dip in the pool or a drive in the car they bought after (hopefully) cashing out some of their gains.
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