For In-Car App Developers, MirrorLink Dashboard is Open for Business

The Car Connectivity Consortium (CCC), an organization driving global technologies for phone-centric car connectivity solutions, today announced that app developers are now free to begin coding with version 1.1 of the CCC’s MirrorLink standard. The milestone will completely transform the in-car app marketplace by giving developers a one-stop shop to create apps that are both driver-aware and interoperable between a majority of the world’s most popular cars and handsets.

“Right now, car connectivity is all about content,” said Jörg Brakensiek, technical workgroup chair of the CCC. “The sooner we can make content suitable for in-car consumption, the sooner car connectivity will achieve its promise. MirrorLink 1.1 makes it easy for developers to enable existing apps with drive-mode protocols or create new apps specifically to enhance the driving experience. In that sense, MirrorLink will speed our transformation from a world with tricky and cumbersome connectivity options to one in which consumers can have the same seamless connectivity and user interface across multiple vehicles and devices.”

At the 3rd annual CCC Summit, which took place November 6 in Krakow, the CCC also announced its membership now totals more than 100 companies and that more than 500 products are now MirrorLink-certified. Among those products is the world’s first MirrorLink 1.1-certified device. The 1.1 specification is optimized for devices and apps and represents the final stretch of the CCC’s race to bring the best apps to the dashboard via the world’s most ubiquitous device: the smartphone.

“The CCC’s momentum has picked up to such a degree that it’s just a matter of time before MirrorLink is standard across cars and devices on a global scale,” said Alan Ewing, president and executive director of the CCC. “More than anything, this year’s Summit was about execution. Our OEM members are now speaking in terms of when entire product lines will be MirrorLink-enabled as opposed to if a product here and there will be enabled for proof of concept. As an organization we are thrilled to have crossed this threshold. And now that developers can join the action, the CCC is looking at yet another banner year for MirrorLink’s journey into the automotive and mobile tech mainstream.”

For access to the MirrorLink 1.1 Developer’s Portal, please visit: http://www.mirrorlink.com/applications/developers.html. This portal will provide information to developers on how to get started.

About the Car Connectivity Consortium (CCC)
The CCC is dedicated to cross-industry collaboration in developing MirrorLink™ global standards and solutions for smartphone and in-vehicle connectivity. The organization’s more than 100 members represent more than 80 percent of the world’s auto market, more than 70 percent of the global smartphone market and a who’s who of aftermarket consumer electronics vendors. For further information, please visit www.carconnectivity.org.