Pioneer, Kenwood unveil new third-party head units for Apple's CarPlay

Posted:
in General Discussion edited January 2015
iPhone owners looking to make the most of Apple's nascent in-car initiative without buying a vehicle now have a number of new choices, as industry heavies Pioneer and Kenwood have announced several new CarPlay-compatible replacement head units at CES 2015.




Pioneer has brought three new models into the CarPlay fold with the AVIC-8100NEX, AVIC-7100NEX and AVH-4100NEX. The second-generation NEX head units include external microphones for voice input as well as a wired remote to use with built-in steering wheel controls and support for Google's Android Auto.

The AVIC-8100NEX sports a high-resolution 7-inch capacitive touchscreen, while the AVIC-7100NEX and AVH-4100NEX ship with similar, resistive touch displays. All three units are equipped with HDMI input, wideband speech and A2DP AAC Bluetooth connectivity, HD Radio, and dual-zone audio and video playback.

Interested buyers will be able to purchase the new head units in March, beginning at $700 for the AVH-4100NEX, $1,200 for the AVIC-7100NEX, and $1,400 for the AVIC-8100NEX.




Rival kenwood, meanwhile, has announced its own DDX9902S, which also supports both CarPlay and Android Auto. Kenwood says the DDX9902S ships with an MHL-supported HDMI port which will allow iPhone 5, 6, and 6 Plus owners to charge their device while in use.

Bluetooth connectivity, HD Radio, and SiriusXM support are included alongside a "high-sensitivity touch screen." Buyers also have the option of adding a rear-view camera and factory steering wheel control integration.

Pricing and availability information for the DDX9902S is not yet available, but Kenwood says it will be released "soon."

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 11
    magman1979magman1979 Posts: 1,292member
    Please don't tell me these units are running Android as the base OS? If they are, no thank you. Give me one of these that run QNX please!
  • Reply 2 of 11
    sockrolidsockrolid Posts: 2,789member
    Meanwhile, BMW has demoed a touchless gesture-based version of iDrive.
    In case you were wondering why BMW hasn't jumped on the CarPlay / Android Auto bandwagons.
    http://f30.bimmerpost.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1075960
  • Reply 3 of 11

    Why should I have to pay for Android Auto support if I don't want that garbage?

  • Reply 4 of 11
    dasanman69dasanman69 Posts: 13,002member
    Why should I have to pay for Android Auto support if I don't want that garbage?

    Where does it say that you have to pay for anything?
  • Reply 5 of 11
    bdkennedy1bdkennedy1 Posts: 1,459member
    Why the f*** do these things cost so much? There are almost no internal components.
  • Reply 6 of 11
    djsherlydjsherly Posts: 1,031member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by bdkennedy1 View Post



    Why the f*** do these things cost so much? There are almost no internal components.



    Just like everything? People are prepared to pay that much? I'm looking closely at another one - the Parrot RNB6 which also has been announced. The UIs on these things are garish, though. It would also be nice to have rotary volume controls, at least.

  • Reply 7 of 11
    knowitallknowitall Posts: 1,648member
    magman1979 wrote: »
    Please don't tell me these units are running Android as the base OS? If they are, no thank you. Give me one of these that run QNX please!

    They probably run Linux.
  • Reply 8 of 11
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by bdkennedy1 View Post



    Why the f*** do these things cost so much? There are almost no internal components.

    Sorry but  you are wrong.  Most of these have built in radio, CD/DVD players, Navigation, bluetooth, video inputs, etc.

     

    Looks like I was right with my post earlier, we are going to start seeing a lot more Carplay enabled aftermarket units coming out.  Kenwood only announced one it looks like but I bet they come out with more later and the DDX9902S is just the top of the line so they put it out first.

  • Reply 9 of 11
    andysolandysol Posts: 2,506member
    Everyone- don't forget these are just MSRPs- they regularly are ~$200+ off MSRP all the time.

    So in a month- is $460 really that expensive for that capability?



    Again- the only thing keeping me from getting one is my factory head unit displays my automatic temperature in it along with the radio/clock. So if I switched is have no clue what temp I'm set to. Until they can retrofit that- they'll never get newer, nicer, higher end conversions.
  • Reply 10 of 11
    Doh, and I just bought and installed a 4000NEX in my truck.

    For me, hooking up my iPhone to the head unit is annoying because I keep it in a case, so I have to remove it from the case, plug it in, then authorize it, then click OK on the head unit to accept that Carplay is likely going to make me get into an accident and it's not Pioneer's fault.

    The mic included with the 4000NEX also doesn't work that great for Siri, at least for me in my truck. It's mounted on the steering wheel column, so there is a direct line of sight between the mic and my head, but Siri works terrible compared with using Siri with my Motorola 305 bluetooth headset from the same spot.
  • Reply 11 of 11
    vmarksvmarks Posts: 762editor
    The Pioneer AVIC options run CarPlay on top of AOSP, the Android Open Source Project.

    When not in CarPlay mode, you're looking at Android, even if it's disguised by Pioneer's UI.

    With Kenwood, I'm not certain. I'll be able to tell more about Alpine soon.

    Parrot is Android based, but does have HVAC controls as an option within it.
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