What’s left to say? It sucks to be Microsoft. For years, Ford Sync, created in partnership with Microsoft, lead the auto industry in driving in-car automation and device integration. And, then Ford Sync stopped leading and began pulling down Ford’s customer satisfaction ratings.
Whereas Apple regularly kills off popular products, they usually do it with a better product (i.e. MacBook > MacBook Air, iPod mini > iPad nano). Not Microsoft.
Users loved XP and then hated Vista. Users loved Windows 7 and then hated eight. Zune was generally well regarded, by critics and users alike, but was left to rot and die. Plays4Sure never really did and was replaced by Marketplace, which is currently rotting in place.
So, is anyone at all surprised to read that Ford will fire Microsoft and, this is the really hurtful part, replace Redmond’s software with Blackberry’s QNX? Actually, didn’t see that last bit coming, but we’ll get to that later.
“Ford, struggling with in-car technology flaws, will base the next-generation Sync system on BlackBerry’s QNX and no longer use Microsoft’s Windows, writes Bloomberg’s Craig Trudell and Jeff Green.
With 7 million Ford Sync equipped vehicles on the road, Ford + Microsoft were the early in-car automation and device integration market leaders. However, over the last year plus, the company’s car sales have been hit hard by Sync reliability issues, aka Microsoft incompetence.
Ford Sync: Change for the Better?
But why Blackberry and QNX? While Blackberry smartphones are dying hard in the marketplace, the company’s QNX operating system is doing very nicely indeed and is currently in use in Audi (Volkswagen) and BMW cars.
QNX is used in nuclear power plant and US military unmanned drone control systems. General Electric, Cisco Systems and Caterpillar all use QNX, too.
Yeah, it sucks to be Microsoft. Hopefully, Ford Sync will stop sucking soon…
What’s your take?