Telematics has become synonymous with automatic crash notification and roadside assistance, thanks to the admirable and successful marketing efforts of General Motors and OnStar. But telematics is so much more than this and this story needs to be told, particularly in the wake of Toyota’s recall debacle. I have been driving a telematics equipped vehicle for the past year.  For me, telematics has meant destination and navigation assistance, movie times and theater locations, and flight arrival times, but, most importantly, telematics has been a powerful connection with my dealer. When combined with on-board diagnostics, the telematics system in my car has meant notifications for low coolant, an engine failure (although the vehicle was still able to operate), low oil level, low tire pressure, and scheduled maintenance.  In each case, the warning in the vehicle caused me to contact the concierge service for guidance.  And in almost every case, the guidance led to an on-the-spot invitation to visit the dealer to correct the problem. While saving lives via ACN is certainly a valuable contribution for a telematics system to make, it is the daily needs related to maintaining a vehicle (and preserving its function and value) that determines the true worth of a telematics system to the dealer and the customer.  With each dealer visit I have learned more about my car and forged a stronger bond with the dealer and with the brand. The combination of diagnostics and call center connection has made the ownership experience one of the most pleasing automotive experiences I have ever had owning a car. In contrast, I receive occasional mailings related to my other vehicle when the computer for the dealer of that vehicle guesses that I have crossed a mileage threshold and am due for scheduled maintenance. (For some reason, dealers – at least the ones I have worked with - routinely fail to properly set the on-board diagnostic systems to the correct mileage thresholds or time stamps, which leads to premature visits for oil changes etc.) There is a big difference between an onboard service notification – which conveys a degree of urgency – and a dealer postcard that looks like a mass mailing come-on. The value of integrating diagnostics and telematics systems has not been lost on OEMs, as both Ford and GM have introduced diagnostic elements in their respective systems. Both systems provide email notifications of vehicle status and functionality. And Hughes Telematics’ vision for automotive connectivity includes Internet-delivered vehicle status reporting. For me, though, it is the integration in the car itself that is most powerful. What is missing in some systems, though, is a more complete integration. When I call the OEM call center, the OEM should already know that a problem has been flagged. The driver shouldn’t have to tell the call center what the error code is. In fact, there are some indications that OEMs such as BMW are moving toward more pro-active messaging to customers in the event of error codes or system failures. Acura, for example, leverages the XM satellite radio connection to the vehicle to provide for direct one-way communications to specific vehicles in the event of recalls or other urgent service issues. (The market is also moving toward onboard and offboard digital manuals, but OEMs will remain hesitant to focus on enabling the customer to correct any but the simplest vehicle problems.) The next step in this process will see a more complete and comprehensive vehicle connectivity solution.  Today’s integrated telematics and vehicle diagnostic offerings fundamentally help to preserve and extend the customer relationship as well as the value of the vehicle investment. For those reasons, it is time for a more complete portfolio of integrated messaging to include leasing, insurance and warranty service partners and their information. Customers should only have to go to a single Website to manage or obtain all of their vehicle information including financing, insurance, scheduled maintenance, maintenance history, and warranty information. Bits and pieces of this kind of integration exist, but the OEM or dealer group that makes a more complete solution happen will have a significant advantage in building customer relationships and maintaining the value of the fleet. Toyota’s woes – and the many other less noteworthy recalls that regularly afflict the industry – are a wake-up call.  As more OEMs move to bring vehicle connectivity to the market, the focus will be on the leveraging of diagnostic data for enhanced dealer-customer connectivity.

CSR is capitalizing on the strength of its GPS line up acquired from SiRF to garner automotive segment wins for its Bluetooth and Wi-Fi solutions, according to the company’s latest earnings report. In its fourth quarter and full year earnings report last week, CSR reported a revenue increase of 149% for its automotive and PND segment. With the addition of SiRF, the combined automotive and PND division now accounts for 21% of total company revenue vs. 7% in the prior year. CSR said fourth quarter demand was strong as a result of the increasing volume of new cars being built and a general move to embed more connectivity and location technologies in those new cars. CSR, which is better known for its dominant position in the handset Bluetooth market, claims combined Bluetooth and GPS leadership in the automotive market. The company also noted it had secured a design-win at a Tier 1 automotive supplier for its latest generation Wi-Fi, the UF6000. The company noted weak PND demand in Europe and the U.S. which was compensated for by increased levels of demand in the Far East and the developing world. CSR announced a design-win for a leading North American electronics manufacturer’s new connected PNDs where CSR is providing both GPS and Bluetooth. In Europe, CSR secured a design-win with Vincotech for new GPS modules and telematics product platforms. CSR says its SiRFPrima high-end SoC platform focused on the in-dash automotive market also received two design-wins in China expected to lead to significant volumes. Overall, CSR says its has begun mass production and shipping of its Wi-Fi/BT/FM connectivity platform; a GPS design win for a N. Am. smartphone maker; and BT and FM design wins for Tier One handset makers. CSR sees “positive trends” in the adoption of wireless connectivity technologies by the automotive sector.  Many vehicles already feature Bluetooth and GPS and the company believes Wi-Fi is a next step. The most important development for CSR in 2009 was that automotive emerged as a substantial third market segment, picking up slack from the company’s audio and consumer segment which saw revenue nearly halved during the year. CSR is now poised to leverage its complete wireless portfolio of Bluetooth, GPS, FM, NFC and Wi-Fi to address emerging automotive opportunities. For additional Strategy Analytics perspectives on in-vehicle connectivity: Global Automotive Vehicle-Device Connectivity Forecast 2008-2016 - http://www.strategyanalytics.com/default.aspx?mod=ReportFormatsViewer&a0=5289 Vehicle-Device Connectivity to Drive Adoption of CD-Less Systems - http://www.strategyanalytics.com/default.aspx?mod=ReportAbstractViewer&a0=5293

While Nuance reported broad-based Q1 revenue growth across all of its divisions, growth within the mobile segment hit 12.5% YOY accounting for nearly half of total company revenue and surpassing company expectations for the segment. Nuance told analysts on its earnings call it had expected healthcare to lead revenue growth for the company. Recent wins in the mobile segment show Nuance technology moving into a wider range of applications enabling new features and functions on devices and in cars. Among higher profile wins were Ford's announcement that the next generation of Ford Sync will feature significant voice enhancements from Nuance that power the MyFord Touch driver connect technology. The next generation of Ford Sync takes advantage of Nuance’s natural language understanding to recognize more than 10,000 first level commands and provide customers with cloud-based connectivity for up-to-the-minute information and entertainment content, the company stated in its prepared Q1 earnings report comments. In addition, Nuance says TomTom recently selected Nuance text-to-speech for its navigation applications for the iPhone. Nuance recently announced that its Nuance VSuite mobile speech software is now shipping on Dell’s Mini3 Android smartphone line-up in China and Brazil. During Q1 2010, mobile royalties grew, reflecting increased unit shipments as well as increased penetration of Nuance technology on device, Nuance reported. During Q1 2010, Nuance introduced Dragon Dictation and Dragon Search for the iPhone. In addition to driving visibility, the success of Nuance’s Dragon iPhone apps has generated interest from carriers and mobile providers to deliver applications for other mobile platforms, languages and vertical markets. During Q1 2010, Nuance launched its voicemail-to-text offering at AT&T, and announced the acquisition of SpinVox, which positions Nuance to accelerate growth and expand its solutions internationally in the voicemail-to-text market, according to the company. Voicemail-to-text, in particular, was cited as a critical application to impact future company growth. Key customers and design wins in Q1 2010 included Amazon, BMW, Daimler, Harman Becker, Harley Davidson, Huawei, Hyundai, LGE, Mahindra & Mahindra, Medion, Motorola, Nokia, Samsung, Sharp, Sony Ericsson, T-Mobile, TomTom, and Toyota.

Harman announced a return to profitability for its fiscal second quarter in an earnings call earlier this week. In that call, the company detailed its marketing plan which could be taken as a blueprint for the entire industry – particularly the company’s inroads into larger volume mid-segment vehicle categories.

Harman is pursuing emerging market opportunities in China, Brazil and India with local development and manufacturing presence – including a $1B revenue target for China by 2015. The emerging market initiative is reflected also in a targeted shift of engineering/R&D balance from 99% high capital and cost (HCC) markets to 60% HCC, and manufacturing/assembly from 81% HCC to 50% HCC by 2012.

The company expects to maintain its luxury segment leadership while leveraging its previously announced “scalable system” strategy, which has already contributed to a Toyota European design win for MY2011. The scalable system is part of an initiative targeting what Harman sees as a $5B high-growth, mid-segment market opportunity reflecting the company’s desire to capture a broader portfolio of business.

In that regard, Harman wants to pioneer energy-saving GreenEdge technologies for hybrid and electric cars in partnership with Intel and Texas Instruments developing solutions to reduce power consumption by 75% including high efficiency speakers, one of the few objectives the company has yet to realize in the marketplace. Similarly, the company is working with Lotus Engineering on Active Noise Management solutions for hybrid, electric and conventional vehicles to address impending legislation regarding pedestrian safety. Noise management will also apply to in-cabin noise cancellation and reduced weight and CO2 emissions. And Harman is also targeting advanced driver assist systems, an entirely new segment for the company.

In its earnings call the company mentioned winning $2B of additional business, expanding its contract portfolio to $10B, a figure the company claims is the largest in the industry. Included in its current and recently executed order book are:

->     Infinity branded audio systems for next-generation Chrysler SRT series high-performance vehicles;

->     Launch of Mark Levinson premium surround sound for MY10 Lexus GX 460;

->     Launch of JBL premium sound for MY11 Toyota Sienna in U.S.;

->     Launch of Harman Kardon Logic 7 HD system with Range Rover for MY10 mid-model year introduction;

->     Launch of Ferrari 458 Italia equipped with Harman audio and infotainment;

->     Exclusive Haman Kardon sound lounges at BMW brand centers in Munich and Berlin;

->     Press launch of Harman/Lotus Engineering HALOsonic sound synthesis technologies;

->     Selected by BMW for next gen, high-end “Professional infotainment system for all new platforms including BMW, Mini and Rolls Royce;

->     Selected by Daimler for next gen Comand infotainment system for new Mercedes S-Class and C-Class models;

->     Selected by Toyota to provide Harman next gen scalable infotainment for vehicles sold in Europe beginning MY11;

->     Selected by Toyota to provide premium JBL branded audio for 4Runner and Land Cruiser in the U.S., Europe and Middle East and the MY11 Siena in U.S.

All of this contributes to what Harman estimates as 45% global branded automotive audio market share, with Bose at a distant 25%. Harman’s branded audio solutions are used in more than 200 car platforms from 12 OEMs shipping more than 2M audio systems annually. Sources indicate that this 500,000 units/quarter pace is actually approaching 1M units/quarter – a pace that will no doubt be stimulated by the recent Toyota wins and future higher volume segment wins.

The pace of launches has eased somewhat for Harman, which may help explain the return to profitability as profits cusually come later in the program cycle. The company hit a peak of six program launches in FY08, followed by five in FY09. The programs for those years included Mercedes, PSA, Porsche, Audi, BMW, SSangYong, Chrysler and Hyundai. Going forward, Harman says it will have four launches in FY10 (including Audi, Mercedes and BMW (2)), three in FY11 (Toyota, Mercedes and Chrysler) and one in FY12 (BMW), before ramping up again in FY13 with four: Harley-Davidson, Mercedes and BMW (2).

The company further notes the evolution of its infotainment architecture:

1997: SH1/16MB – Tuner/CD/Navi – Turn-by-Turn

2002: SH3/32MB – MMI2000 – VxWorks – Tuner/CD/DVD – Phone/SDS – MOST25 – 2D/2.5D Map

2008: SH4/512MB/1024 – MoCCA Framework – QNX CAR Platform – Tuner/CD/DVD – Phone/SDS – MOST50 – 3D Map – Internet Connectivity

2012: Intel Atomm/1GB – MoCCA & DSI 2.0 – QNX CAR – Tuner/CD/DVD/Blu-Ray – Phone/SMS/Email – MOST150 – NDS Navi – Enhanced 3D Map – Internet.

Worth noting in the architectural evolution is the growing role of both QNX (CAR Platform) and Intel (Atomm) as well as the onset of Internet connectivity - pioneered by BMW - Blu-Ray, MOST and enhanced navigation features, many of which will revolve around 3D and augmented reality implementations.

Overall, Harman appears to have emerged victorious from its cost cutting regimen with fewer European facilities but with a profitable organization in place pursuing business building initiatives throughout Europe, Asia and the U.S. The most significant business transformation of all, though, will be the Toyota wins. Not even Toyota's recent marketing stumbles can tarnish this achievement and how its will transform Harman's operations and growth profile.

While car makers around the world are developing traditional embedded telematics systems for deployment worldwide, a secondary market in embedded (ie. line fit) and aftermarket modules intended to meet local mandates for eCall, vehicle tracking and road charging are proliferating. Mandates in such diverse locations as The Netherlands and Brazil are feeding this frenzy and new suppliers with new solutions are emerging on the scene on a weekly basis.

 

The six most prominent applications driving demand and interest - among suppliers, car makers and service providers – are pay-as-you-drive insurance (PAYD), the European eCall mandate, the Brazilian stolen vehicle recovery mandate, eHorizon map-as-a-sensor offerings, road charging (The Netherlands, France, Germany) and buy-here-pay-here solutions. Each one of these opportunities represents millions of devices to be sold and installed although, interestingly, the service opportunities are more limited with only PAYD, SVR and buy-here-pay-here promising any service revenue. Road charging in The Netherlands alone represents an 8M unit build with 300K-500K units/annually going forward.

 

PAYD is the highest profile opportunity in the industry today with Octo-Telematics leading the way in Europe with more than 1M installed devices in use. Smaller players are multiplying throughout the continent, though, as insurers recognize the opportunity to take customers from competitors, reward their own “best” customers, and gather better data for determining risk. Progressive is the market leader in the U.S., but with competition fierce in the automotive insurance industry, PAYD will be embraced nationwide. Not coincidentally, Octo-Telematics has partnered with Directed Electronics to tackle the U.S. market.

 

After PAYD, the Brazilian mandate for stolen vehicle tracking and vehicle immobilization has attracted as much attention as PAYD with several companies claiming design-in wins. There were some hiccoughs on the way to achieving a nationwide mandate, but the latest indications are that 100% of vehicles produced in Brazil will be obliged to be fitted with tracking devices enabled for vehicle immobilization. The compromise that allows the mandate to move forward leaves the service provisioning to the customer’s discretion.

 

Road charging, an application already widely deployed in the fleet industry, is coming to passenger cars to reduce emissions, traffic, and accident rates. The volumes for road charging will be significant and suppliers are circling.

 

The eHorizon solutions, in module form, offered by Navteq/Magneti Marelli/ST Microelectronics and lately demonstrated by Intermap/Visteon offer to integrate map and road elevation data into advanced driver assistance applications. The volumes here will grow, but the rate will be slow as consumers gradually come to embrace emerging safety systems.

 

Buy-here-pay-here modules used by both new and used car resellers to track and immobilize customers that miss payments is the most well-established of all the module-related opportunities. Players in the industry have recently coalesced around the Payment Assurance Technology Association (http://www.patassociation.com/index.php) to raise the profile of this vital application as a legitimate segment worthy of attention and respect. No doubt demand has never been higher given current economic decisions.

 

Supplier approaches to module mania range from application specific solutions to all-purpose devices not only suitable to multiple uses but remotely configurable and integrated with Website access. ABS T&T, which has partnered with Continental, distributes a multipurpose module for tracking and telematics applications ranging from shipment tracking to stolen vehicle recovery and telematics.

 

NXP offers its ATOP module which it describes as the world’s first single component on board unit (OBU) capable of supporting ITS applications, stolen vehicle tracking, PAYD applications, last mile tracking (automotive black box) as well as enabling ADAS systems. The device can be configured with a wide range of connectivity including GSM, CAN, near field communication (NFC, USB, and GPS and also enables downloadable applications.

 

Whether purpose-built or all-purpose, module makers are proliferating spurred on by government mandates as well as new and existing commercial opportunities from both the consumer telematics and fleet market segments. This is precisely the right stimulus package for an automotive industry on the mend.

Autotxt is a stolen vehicle recovery and immobilization solution provider that spread its wings in 2009 to move beyond its home market in the United Kingdom to explore SVR opportunities in Germany, Brazil and China.  In the process, the company has begun trials of fleet solutions around the world pointing the way forward for the entire fleet industry to bring robust commercial solutions, eventually, to the large volume passenger vehicle market.

 

Autotxt has clearly recognized that its immobilizer technology, though a powerful differentiating solution, is not a mass market product. In the U.S., for example, vehicle immobilization is primarily used in the buy-here-pay-here market for consumer with poor credit seeking to purchase cars. This market segment is served by a half dozen or more companies and experiences strong, steady demand. OnStar caused a stir with its vehicle slowdown solution introduced in 2009. There have been a handful of high-profile vehicle recoveries using the technology, but it has yet to see wider application - something that Autotxt might change.

 

Autotxt is building upon its existing solution to offer comprehensive vehicle telematics solutions with over-the-air configurability, CAN integration and Website management for fleets. But these same solutions are increasingly well-suited to the passenger vehicle market especially since they already include tools for CO2 reduction and green navigation. The next step for Autotxt may well be more consumer-facing products and services.

 

In the U.K., Autotxt is best know for its Thatcham Category 5 vehicle recovery technology which includes pro-active notification of the vehicle owner of its theft and the ability to immobilize the vehicle and thereby recover it.  The Autotxt solution is used by Aston Martin, Jaguar and Land Rover and Autotxt is now running tests and trials with potential customers in Germany and elsewhere.  The technology represents a major business opportunity for Autotxt in Brazil, but that country is still in the process of re-evaluating its vehicle tracking and immobilization mandate.

 

In Germany, Autotxt is currently running trials with bigger commercial vehicle fleets with its new fleet efficiency tool, which focuses on improving driver behaviour, reducing CO2 and anti-theft.  The first trials are nearly completed, according to the company.  In China, Autotxt has two different activities, one focused on fleet applications and another one involving stolen vehicle tracking solutions for car makers.

 

All Autotxt applications involve CAN integration and in-depth CAN analysis for accurate data.  The company's hardware is configured over the air for the dedicated vehicle type.  The company also provides custom configured Web-based applications for customers for free since there is no standard telematics product for every customer.

 

Immobilization technology has been available from Autotxt for several years. The company works with different service partners in different countries covering Europe and an increasing number other countries.  Development goes in the direction of interactive CAN applications (in cooperation with the automotive companies) and remote diagnostics capabilities (self healing car) in cooperation with IBM and Jaguar.  The company is looking at opportunities in the U.S.

With the statement: "Consumers want their devices to work together, so it is inevitable that single-vendor connected solutions will lose their interest," Pioneer's senior managing director, Akira Haeno has shoved a stake into the ground for the company's Platform for Aggregation of Internet Services (PAIS). Pioneer says this new content and services platform, set to arrive formally in mid-2010, will provide a seamless home/car/work experience for different content sources and services in conjunction with any connected device. The announcement opens doors to new market opportunities for Pioneer Electronics while also opening the company up to a new range of competitors that are already aggregating content and services. But Haeno's declaration is significant considering there are several connected devices that are otherwise closed to different content and service sources. A few that come to mind are devices from TomTom, Garmin, OnStar, and Apple. The ability to bridge all of these platforms will give Pioneer an advantage against rivals such as Airbiquity, Hughes Telematics or even UIEvolution. The PAIS platform presents open-standard interfaces for voice, navigation and maps, local search, social networking, music and radio and video and television, the company says. The interfaces enable the addition of new content and services without the added investment in proprietary solutions. Pioneer's solution is a direct challenge to the strategies of competing Tier Ones such as Visteon, Continental, and Denso among others, all of whom are offering to enable a wide range of applications. Even real-time operating system supplier QNX has had to race to deliver new application interfaces in support of its technology already deployed in 12+ vehicles. The Pioneer solution is based on Windows for Automotive and incorporates VoiceBox technology but is otherwise technology agnostic. The challenge for the content and service aggregators will be to demonstrate that their solutions are truly able to seamlessly and easily deploy new applications. Ford Motor Company and Mercedes-Benz are the first to reach the market with systems sufficiently flexible to deploy additional applications. Ford relies on smartphone connectivity, while Mercedes combines smartphone connectivity with a sophisticated back-end provided by Hughes Telematics. Ford has made a software development kit available, as has Continental for its Android-based systems. Mercedes has not released an SDK but company executives envision a day when Mercedes customers could create widgets or full applications. Competitors may see a tough choice in choosing to support or leverage the Pioneer platform, but the company is early enough to market to stake a credible claim and the solution will no doubt support Pioneer's own connected offerings.

Gewi, an 18-year-old German-based company with an off-the-shelf software solution for managing roadway information for DOTs, car makers and device manufacturers, has entered the U.S. market and introduced TIC3, the latest version of its software. The company is known for its TIC (Traveller Information Center) software platform used to collect, create, store, monitor, view, manage and distribute information such as traffic data from a wide range of sources. The company's solution is designed to be used as an out-of-box solution or as a server-based or hosted service delivery platform. The TIC platform is capable of producing outputs in any required format, including including RDS-TMC, TPEG, radio and TV traffic reports, PDA, and web. Gewi clients include Nokia, BMW, Navteq and Daimler. While the company's software is in use in more than 100 projects worldwide, it has most recently been manifesting itself in embedded and portable devices for processing traffic information. But the Gewi platform is content agnostic, so the next phase for Gewi will likely be the integration of data sources such as gasoline pricing, hotel reservations and anything else related to movement on a roadway. The flexibility of the Gewi platform is likely to put the company into competition with companies such as Airbiquity, Google and even Hughes Telematics. These potential competitors have already demonstrated the power of a flexible back end to enable their clients to deploy new content and applications. It is possible that companies might even choose to make use of Gewi's software. Whether or not OEMs turn to Gewi to process other types of non-traffic data, the company is well positioned to enable new traffic applications from companies such as TrafficLand, Aha Mobile, Waze and TrafficTalk. Whether the data source is traffic cameras or crowd-sourced traffic information, Gewi's software can help process and distribute the new data sources in an integrated manner, allowing customers to prioritize different data feeds depending on circumstances. Gewi may well find itself partnering with Tier One suppliers such as Visteon, Continental and Denso to enable the range of applications envisioned by these organizations (gas pricing, parking, movie times) as well as to enable application stores. Precisely how Gewi will fit into the changing automotive software landscape remains to be seen. The company's solutions are hardware and operating system agnostic and command a substantial market position in the critical traffic information space. The challenge for Gewi will be to see if it can build on this essential piece of the in-vehicle content portfolio to broaden its reach.

Leveraging its TotalGuide interactive programming guide and Lasso and Connected Platform networking technology, Rovi is seeking to become master of all content.  The company wants to own the interface between the user of audio and video content and the process of discovering and acquiring that content regardless of source or device platform. At the CES show in January, the company was touting new content partnerships with Showtime Networks, ZillionTV and Rhapsody in the U.S. along with a list of European based firms.  Existing sources include CBS, Blockbuster, YouTube and Roxio CinemaNow.  Rovi’s technology is built upon, among other things, the growing metadata and user review databases of its own AllMediaGuide and partner Flixster, along with WideVine’s digital rights management solution.  The company claims more than 25 million U.S and 50 million worldwide households using its interactive programming guide which also serves as an advertising platform. While Rovi’s role in the automotive market is less obvious, the company is more than three years into a drive to resolve content and rights-related challenges to accessing media and content from multiple sources conveniently and legally on mobile devices and in cars as well as in homes. Rovi’s role in the automotive market is growing as in-vehicle device interfaces such as USB ports and Wi-Fi connections proliferate along with external connections via embedded modules or smartphones.  More content and media are being brought into cars and Rovi is coming along for the ride.  Current partners in the automotive segment include Kenwood and NXP. Rovi’s technology is also used by Apple’s iTunes store among many other online content sellers. Introduced late last year and currently available, Rovi’s automotive solution combines its Lasso and Connected Platformm technology for the automotive market and includes:

• Media Lookup: the ability to use Rovi's metadata library to identify, tag and manage digital content.
• Rich Entertainment Metadata: information on a variety of music and movies, supports multiple content types from CDs, digital files, DVD, Blu-ray Discs.
• Software Update: periodic updating of embedded databases via removable media or home network connectivity.
• Content Transfer: transfer of audio files and metadata to the vehicle from standards-based devices on a home network.
• Device Sharing: interoperability of portable devices via USB and standards-based connectivity.

To achieve the necessary connectivity, Rovi is supporting the Digital Living Network Alliance’s (DLNA) new guidelines for the service provider market that will enable consumers to play back and share commercial video and music across DLNA Certified devices. DLNA certified devices are proliferating in the PC (Windows 7), set-top box, TV, Blu-Ray, and mobile device markets, paving the way for smoother access to content from multiple sources. In the consumer electronics market, Rovi wants to become the default programming guide for the next generation of HDTVs, Blu-ray players and set-top boxes.  The importance of this effort is that the company is bringing together both in-home consumer electronics content access and mobile device access.  TotalGuide will integrate cable and broadband video content side-by-side, in a single unified interface in the home, but can be expected to deliver a similar solution in mobile environments. This means, Rovi will help enable the discovery and distribution of content, regardless of the delivery source or device platform.  And Rovi also has the user reviews and metadata from partners like Flixster to offer social recommendations for video viewing.  Competitors include Vudu, Boxee and TiVo, among others, but Rovi arguably has an edge with its unique combination of content, rights protection, metadata, and user reviews. And Rovi is the only player pursuing automotive opportunities.

Rovi’s rights protection technology comes from Widevine’s video optimization and DRM solutions.  Widevine is a provider of adaptive streaming, interactive DVD/Blu-ray and DRM technologies to Internet content services as well as cable, satellite and telecommunications companies.  Rovi says that by working with Widevine, consumers using its TotalGuide will be able to have access on their TVs to more content, such as movies and TV shows, from more providers.  At the CES show, Rovi showed its new Media Management content management solution.  Media Management helps manufacturers of PCs, set-top boxes, mobile handsets, and network-attached storage devices identify, tag and organize digital music, videos and photos by attaching descriptive metadata to the asset for easier filing and searching..