CEO of French Mobile Supplier Parrot Looks to U.S.

DETROIT – Mobile-phone developer Parrot is looking to expand in North America with more vehicle telematics applications, its CEO tells WardsAuto.

The supplier earns about $100 million in revenue by providing audio chipsets for several auto makers’ products in Europe and India. Now North America, particularly the U.S., is primed for future growth, the company’s top executive says.

“The U.S. market in general, the auto makers need to open more applications to the car,” Parrot CEO Henri Seydoux says during a product demonstration here.

Paris-based Parrot has been in talks with some auto makers about integrating technology that would fine-tune voice commands, play music more easily and, above all, link a driver’s mobile devices regardless of platform, Seydoux says.

The company is taking steps into the U.S. car market by launching three aftermarket tablets that run on the Android platform, but still can sync with Apple- or Windows-based products. That wide connectivity is key to Parrot’s success, Seydoux says.

Parrot spokesmen here decline to reveal which auto makers the company is working with, saying only that “some contracts have been signed.”

Seydoux believes there is room for Parrot in the market.

“Vehicle connectivity is slow,” he says of the time it takes to develop a system, build it upon an existing platform that works for drivers and bring it to market.

Ford’s Sync connectivity operates on a Windows-based platform, while Chrysler’s Uconnect and General Motors’ MyLink and IntelliLink run on proprietary systems. But Seydoux says the tide is turning toward Android-based platforms.

“We believe that Android is more modern,” he says.

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