"Every car's dashboard needs to take a cue from the iPhone," writes Michael V. Copeland in Fortune (10/26/09). After acknowledging that cars "are for driving" and that safety must always come first, he allows that cars are "the ultimate mobile device." And he thinks auto companies "need to start acting more like consumer electronics companies if they don't want to cede one of their last great opportunities to Apple, Research in Motion, or Google."

Michael says he's thinking in terms of apps "that help you, or your newly licensed children, drive more safely. In the same way you have different permissions on a computer, you might have different permissions in a car that toggle from super-performance mode to granny mode, for example." He also thinks it would be cool if a dashboard app tracked his Google calendar and let his colleagues know his estimated time of arrival.

But most of all Michael thinks automakers should "provide a framework that can bring concepts and people together for product development on a consumer electronics timescale, which means weeks for implementing an idea, not years." He notes that Microsoft is already working with Ford and BMW with Google. But his big idea is that the auto industry should move toward "open systems that software developers could access." And he warns, "If they don't, maybe Apple will get into the car business itself ... and believe me, they don't want that to happen."