When will the after market In communications, navigation and entertainment industy cat up with OEM.

I want a large (double din) keypad for my mobile phone connected via bluetooth to inbuilt HFK which I want to integrate with a large 7" LCD for DVD play back and Navigation, with updateable maps and rotarty with the option to add headrest monitors and have a rear view camera, voice dialing, voice command of ICE, voice recorder for minimum 5 minutes of total recording time for taking notes.

Dad can get it in his range rover as STANDARD fitment (theres an upgrade to the ICE available ontop of this should one wish)
Yet I can't get a system even CLOSE to this available aftermarket. (oh and to boot the quality of the sound isnt too shabby either)
Why is this?

because there is very little market-demand for this.

you're the only person in australia wanting such a combo.

in japan and the US, you can probably do all of this with alpine and pioneer. just not here.

Demand Vs supply. OEM always out-demands, thus they get the supply over aftermarket. Its not always a certainty, but obviously seems that way.

some of the EU BMW stuff is absolutely amazing - many of the bimmers here don't even have the standard fitment they have over there.
I'm pretty sure this is true for a lot of brands

Surely im not the only person in australia who is a business person thus a heavy user of telecomunications who spends a fair amount of time on the road who wants a safe and reliable way of dialing phone numbers and using a mobile phone with the ability to take voice notes who also wants the added safety features of reverce camera and who sometimes has passengers on board when doing longer trips who could be entertained by a DVD to watch.

To have this set up at the moment I am looking at a bury HFK
an Alpine screen
An Alpine DVD player (for the rotary volume control
a reverce camera to connect to the screen
GPS via a garmain unit

So im still missing the ability to take voice notes digitally (currently I call myself and leave a message on my own voice mail)
and I dont have a large keypad for dialing numbers

and instead of 1 unit I have 3

heck even MB can get it right!

As a global car market australia is less than 1% of total world wide sales (vfacts... i think). Of those sales, only 35% of cars get parts from the aftermaket. In the 25% aftermarket share car-audio makes up about 30% total (you can't competed on things like oil, non oem parts, tyres, wheels, exhausts etc). Niche products with-in car audio (such as the one your after) make up for less than 25% of what they sell in car audio. Most stores have brands like Kenwood, VDO etc to cater for the masses in terms of numbers. Without the the sales of the masses, niche would not survive in this cold profit seaking economic driven world....
Or then again we could start our own MEA import business.

Ive not seen any devices that can do what I want anywhere in the world - at least not from a "name brand"
I would think the states would have similar requirements with all their SUVs
Places like denmark russia UAE and even the UK all have 4x4s and I would imagine many of their drivers have similar requirements to myself.
Infact I've noticed in the 4x4 community that incar PCs are extreemly common as they guys like the fact that they can have GPS interfaced with topo maps from companies like hema maps. Now I look into stats patrol4x4 has 11,000 members lets suggest a company came out with a device that suited these guys and 2% of them purchased it 220 now thats a very small number when you conciders there are over 22,000 4x4s sold each year in this country aloneand if australia only has about 1% of the global market thats 2.2million vehicles sold so if you got 2% of the market globally thats 44,000 units in 4x4s alone thats before you go into sedans and light trucks etc and surely once you make such a unique product available and people become educated about it and what it can do the sales will only increase and if you have a good product that you can keep the model alive surely you could sell 1,000,000 units easily. and remember with the 4x4 community when it comes to this kind of gear those guys spend a LOT of money. Think $2,000 for a HF radio, $2,500 on driving lights, $4-600 on UHF, $2000 on GPS and mapping surely a unit that can do all this could be made available for AU$3,500 build it and they will come

Re that MB unit, I tried using one over in HK (perhaps 4 years old). I found it feature-packed but not at all user-friendly. Then again, I just wanted to do silly things like listen to a CD and change disc selection in the stacker. =)

Perhaps, taking your stats into account, you could muscle in on that after-market area.

/yawn

You dont find it dissapointing that we cant get good useful products marc?
You dont find it frustrating that these products are quite obviously available yet not made accessable to consumers in the local market?
You dont find that the fact that people including yourself are working hard to educate people against grey imports and cheap chinese copy/knock off products yet these same people are making these options attractive by not offering comparable products locally?

I mean sh!t we live in a society of HDMI 1.3 one cable hookup 60+inch plasma flat screens GPS technology accurate to within 1 meter communications advancements that allow us to access broad band speed internet at nearly any populated area within this country via wireless technology yet we have to have a half dozen add on component to do essentially simple tasks

Now obviously I realise that to get such a product locally would be expensive but there are people who have a cost is no problem attitude. For example my old man has spent over $1000 on hands free cradles for his bury hands free kit in the last 12 months he has purchsed 3 mobile phones and 2 PDAs in the search for the right phone for him. surely he isnt the only person in this world who does this kind of thing. So when you concider that he has spent probably $2500 on phones and phone accessories in the last 12 - 18 months plus he has purchsed a $1700 GPS and spent over $300,000.00 on 2 vehicles in the last 2 years (and just spend another 160k on another one today - dont ask sometimes I dont understand his mentality) its easy to see that there is an "executive" market out there and if the right product(s) were available there would be people with disposable incomes large enough to pay for them without batting an eyelid. I mean really if my old man is one person who is by no means rich but just an average successful business man there must be plenty of others out there...

I know of atleast 7 nissan patrols with AVN6000's in them at least one of these was installed by northfield when the units were first out - they were a bloody expencive unit when they came out. this same guy also has another $800 worht of GPS gear for the off road. I think when the AVN6000 was first out it was a $3k unit plus this guy has spent a further $800 on a seperate GPS for the off road and probably spent $100 on installation - thats nearly $4k

Its a society of credit and disposable income people dont care how much things cost they care about how well things perform. Yeah sure for the majority of 16 - 25 year olds that I would guess would make up a large percentage of the demogaphic of this site a buck does come into it. but in the real world - the real market place there are a lot of players out there with a lot of coin they are willing to drop on the right product - their just waiting on the right product to become available.

Whilst I'm harping on about the AVN-6000 most of these units that I know of that have been installed have been intalled into Vans of all things. Not your boyracers who are generally associated with the aftermarket scene - particularly when it comes to ICE

the Remote Sim thing is good too - so the car kit uses your phone's sim when you're driving.

I'm sure its Alpine or Clarion that make the BMW systems - maybe MB as well - did you ask anyone?

maybe get the system out of one of those cars, and graft it into the GU ?!?!?

I think you should probably be investigating the car computer path ... I couldn't see anything in your list that CarPC pretty much couldn't take care of. I know you like to fiddle / customise so this could be right up your alley.

Sorry

Bwahaha gimme a bell later today and reminde me to bring ya that 6er and a couple of paint drums.
You did remember my cables and mixer didnt you

His off picking up his new Rangie now - 2008 Rangie Sports V8 twin turbo...

I'm now trying to find a bluetooth keypad but the only ones I can find are computer keypads and they are the wrong way around.