I've got a new E90 with iDrive and due to me wanting a car immediately I didn't want to wait for months to get one with all the options I wanted. So I ended up getting one without bluetooth for my cell phone, but everything else I wanted. There are two things I would like to add/integrate to the car. One is a handsfree bluetooth for my phone and the other is my iPod.
As far as I can make out the best I can do for the phone is a Parrot bluetooth kit which would mean sticking another screen somewhere on the dash and this would cost somehwere in the region of $600 CAD installed.
Next the iPod, I have been quoted $850 CAD by the BMW dealer to install this, at least it integrates fully with the iDrive, but this is double the cost of an actual iPod, and I'm only getting some wires for my money!
Finally my point, surely it would be better for BMW to have a couple of USB ports in the glove box, in the armrest and maybe a couple in the trunk. From here BMW (or other companies) can offer various devices that can make use of the user interface (screen and input) offered by iDrive and offer much better integration for so many devices from cell phones to iPods (and all other digital music players) and who knows what else.
BMW may want to protect it's revenue stream, but currently it doesn't seem to offer many accessories like I have outlined above. It could always design some proprietory interface and license the technology or something to protect this source of revenue.
As far as I can make out the best I can do for the phone is a Parrot bluetooth kit which would mean sticking another screen somewhere on the dash and this would cost somehwere in the region of $600 CAD installed.
Next the iPod, I have been quoted $850 CAD by the BMW dealer to install this, at least it integrates fully with the iDrive, but this is double the cost of an actual iPod, and I'm only getting some wires for my money!
Finally my point, surely it would be better for BMW to have a couple of USB ports in the glove box, in the armrest and maybe a couple in the trunk. From here BMW (or other companies) can offer various devices that can make use of the user interface (screen and input) offered by iDrive and offer much better integration for so many devices from cell phones to iPods (and all other digital music players) and who knows what else.
BMW may want to protect it's revenue stream, but currently it doesn't seem to offer many accessories like I have outlined above. It could always design some proprietory interface and license the technology or something to protect this source of revenue.