Airbiquity partners with China Unicom to provide connected vehicle services in China

25 February 2013

Airbiquity and China Unicom of Shanghai announced a partnership to provide telematics services for the Chinese automotive market, leveraging Airbiquity’s Choreo connected vehicle service delivery platform and China Unicom’s telecom infrastructure and service provider capabilities. The goal of the partnership is to provide comprehensive and advanced connected vehicle services for Chinese automotive line-fit and aftermarket programs.

Services are scheduled to launch later this year with two customers already under agreement.

The partnership will increase the breadth of services for both companies in the field of connected vehicle solutions, and help automotive manufacturers throughout China to quickly implement advanced telematics solutions.

Planned services offered through the partnership include infotainment and smartphone integration, commercial vehicle fleet services, CRM, and other traditional telematics services.

Shipments of smartphones in China increased 61% year-on-year in Q3 2012, ahead of the United States and confirming the nation’s position as the world's largest country by volume.

With vehicle sales in China alone expected to rise from 21 million units in 2013 to nearly 34 million in 2019, the opportunity for connected car solution suppliers is huge in this region. Our research highlights that nearly half of the vehicles sold in China will have either embedded modems or tethered device telematics capability by 2019, in spite of the lower value economy segment accounting for over 30% of vehicle sales.

—Richard Robinson, director, automotive at Strategy Analytics