Next Ford Option: Microsoft Software?

Rumor has it that one of the many things that'll be announced at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in January will be a partnership between the Ford Motor Company and Microsoft to put a Microsoft operating system, known as Sync, into new Fords an option. The software will supposedly provide for hands-free phone calls as well as enable e-mail, music downloads, and other data-related activities.

As I read about this, two things popped into my head:

Point one. Back in the late 1990s, Microsoft launched a car electronics platform called AutoPC, based on Windows CE, with much fanfare; it did turn into a commercial product from Clarion, but seemingly went absolutely nowhere. (At the time, I attended a demo at Microsoft headquarters in Redmond--the main thing I remember is the synthesized voice it used, which sounded like an angry porpoise.)

Which is not to say that Sync is doomed to join AutoPC in the dustbin of Microsoft-product history. For one thing, between stuff like GPS and wireless broadband and Bluetooth, the technologies and applications available for car electronics have come a heck of a long way since 1998. Whether Sync will do interesting things and do them well I don't know, but there's no lack of interesting things that could be done.

Point two. One of the most oft-repeated, entertaining technology-related urban legends involves a long series of jokes relating to comparing Microsoft products with cars. (The legend involves GM, not Ford, but hey, it's close enough.)

As often is the case with urban legends, there's a real point hidden somewhere in the fantasy. And that point is that we expect Microsoft products to misbehave and annoy us and generally do things which, if they happened with cars, would be alarming or downright dangerous.

I haven't seen Sync yet, assuming that it exists and will indeed be called Sync. But I'll be intrigued to see if it's simple, reliable, and useful. And if Sync is indeed the name, it's kinda interesting that it's a name that doesn't bring up Windows and all the baggage that brand carries.

Anyhow, I'm going to CES in less than two weeks, and if Sync is indeed unveiled there, I'll be happy. The show has a gigantic hall devoted to car-related products, and as a technology guy, I'm always disappointed by it, since the products that fill it almost always seem to lag far behind the interesting things that could be done with data, networking, and entertainment in an automobile. (We're talking about an industry which hasn't even made an AUX-IN port standard equipment yet.)

I'll be glad when that hall is full of stuff worth writing about in PC World--and Sync would be, if nothing else, a step in the right direction...