Audi News
Audi and Samsung Hatch Plan for MP3 Streaming Via Bluetooth
By by: George Achorn, photos from Audi Q7 Globe
Jul 1, 2005, 09:49

Seoul, South Korea – Reports are surfacing through several news agencies that Samsung Electronics and Audi have partnered up for the introduction of a new application of Bluetooth technology that would allow users to listen to MP3 digital music files from their mobile phone over the stereo system of their Audi.

Bluetooth has quickly established itself as an industry standard for inter device communications via short-range radio waves. Up until now, the only mass-market application of Bluetooth in the automobile industry for drivers are some pretty slick hands free phone applications that allow drivers to make use of their phones so long as the mobile handset is within a roughly 30 foot range of the vehicle. Just this month, North American dealerships have begun taking delivery of Audis enabled with this very same sort of Bluetooth hands-free system.

Samsung is the world’s largest manufacturer of mobile handsets and has developed a new Bluetooth-based stereo technology that they call Advanced Audio Distribution Profile (A2DP), that allows digital music to be beamed via Bluetooth to an A2DP enabled stereo – in this case the system in an Audi automobile.

According to the Korea Times, Samsung and Audi have invited 130 journalists from the U.S. and Europe to sample the technology at Audi headquarters in Ingolstadt, Germany – displaying interaction between a Samsung Anycall SGH-D600 handset and an Audi A6 Avant quattro automobile.

The D600 handset, dubbed the “Super Music Phone” is expected to go on sale next year with 30 gigabytes of music storage and a two megapixel camera with TV output. Samsung reportedly has plans to expand their A2DP-supporting offering in the future, including an i300 smart phone that will also come with a 3-gigabyte memory capacity for song storage . That’s capacity similar to the Apple iPod, the device to beat in the North American MP3 player device category.

Whether or not Apple Computer has plans for use of A2DP or a similar technology remains to be seen. However, Apple currently has partnerships in place with several automaker, including BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Volvo and also Audi.

At this time, Audi has made no announcement as to when A2DP-equipped cars will be available worldwide or specifically in the United States, nor have they given an indication of the potential for retrofit of the A2DP system to cars built without the MP3 sharing technology.

For more discussion on this story, click on the link to our discussion forums at the left.

© Copyright 2004 by YourSITE.com