There is a reason they just canned their CEO! Of all things he had no electric vehicle future that put BMW (or kept them) at the forefront for driver experience. Therefore, let’s apparently nickel and dime our upper-class customers for Apple CarPlay. Aufwiedersehen. How incredibly stupid!
It's not often around here that we see this much consensus on a topic!
BMW is totally in the wrong here, although people will still keep buying their hideous crossovers and crossover/coupe monstrosities.
But when it comes to Apple doing the same thing (charge for Fast charger or USB to 3.5mm headphone jack adapter), the exact same people will say Apple is RIGHT. Hypocrisy at its best.
Not everyone here thinks so. There are a few people who are obvious 'iSheep,' but many/most people are more reasoned
Are there name tags to identify users as such?
As for hypocrisy, I don't think the analogy to fast chargers or legacy analog adapters is valid at all. Firstly because those obvious aren't annual charges (dur), and secondly because fast charging is a specialty use case that most nightly charging customers don't care about; and similar for legacy analog ports, most iPhone customers use the headphones in the box, making it again a special use case. Thus one-time purchases of special use case accessories is appropriate and not analogous to this annual BMW charge.
One more reason not to buy a luxury vehicle. What are you paying for, anyhow? Just Auto Start Stop is enough to drive me away from a BMW. It drove me crazy that it could not be disabled permanently. It would reset itself every time the car was turned on again after being turned off.
Such a load of pants. Really, $80... annually. Sure fire reason I won’t be buying a BMW. They would have been better off building it into their servicing costs and hiding in those fees as a “value add” rather than a stand out bulky, expensive option. Madness.
BMW died with the E60/1 and the last true BMW was the E46 imho. Both of which I have. For my wife. I drive an E30, also imho, the best sedan ever made. Ever.
Sadly, I would never even entertain the thought of owning a modern BMW (with the outside exception of a 1st gen 1 series). We’re likely going to sell the E61 and keep the E46. The once great Bavarian automotive engineering prince (I’ll reserve king for Porsche) is no longer what it was.
Here in Europe, BMW cars and drivers are seen more and more as "has been" and show off. Among the wealthy and a growing part of the population, the trend is clearly towards smaller Full Electric vehicles and BMW doesn't fit well in this trend. In fact, european cities are more and more forbidding vehicles entry, diesel motors and reducing parking spaces within their limits. Arrogance doesn't pay !
All of the German luxury cars are in dire straits. They have not adequately prepared for the electric transition. I purchased BMW's since 1978, usually on European Delivery. Over the years the BMW models have not kept up with their image. My last BMW was in 2011. I switched to Audi, which had better performance and interior quality, and finally Tesla, which is the ultimate driving machine. Tesla does not have CarPlay, because it is better than CarPlay.
BMW is stupid. They could have increased the price of the car the same amount and made CarPlay standard and no one would have blinked an eye. Now they have a bunch of negative press.
What same amount? $80? That's per year. How does BMW know how many years to price in?
Charging for CarPlay for this reason is spurious, like Japanese whaling 'research', but unless you know how long you will own the car and how long the car will last, your idea doesn't work (at least for BMW).
Read somewhere the options are $80 annually of $300 for 20 years. So.... add $300 to their already exorbitant prices and nobody buying BMW blinks. I have no idea what the global response will be, but I will not buy a BMW just because of this. I'm looking at a Porsche Macan S.
Read somewhere the options are $80 annually of $300 for 20 years. So.... add $300 to their already exorbitant prices and nobody buying BMW blinks. I have no idea what the global response will be, but I will not buy a BMW just because of this. I'm looking at a Porsche Macan S.
Good luck with that - Porsche charges $360 for CarPlay in the Macan S.
The idea that BMW will do continual testing and, presumably, updates is laughable. I spent a small fortune on options for my BMW to allow it to work wirelessly with my phone. The car's software was never updated once by BMW, and BMW indicated that the car was incompatible with any phone produced after the car. What IS likely to happen is that at some point BMW will abandon the subscription fees for models more than 3-5 years old, either because of "incompatibilities" or from lack of interest on their part. At which point I can promise you CarPlay will stop working for your car. No thanks.
The idea that BMW will do continual testing and, presumably, updates is laughable. I spent a small fortune on options for my BMW to allow it to work wirelessly with my phone. The car's software was never updated once by BMW, and BMW indicated that the car was incompatible with any phone produced after the car. What IS likely to happen is that at some point BMW will abandon the subscription fees for models more than 3-5 years old, either because of "incompatibilities" or from lack of interest on their part. At which point I can promise you CarPlay will stop working for your car. No thanks.
Newer BMW's equipped with iDrive 7 and higher are updated over the air, now. And they do get updates.
Earlier I mentioned that I chose a Merc 3 years ago partly and significantly on account of Merc's inclusion of CarPlay as its default functionality while BMW wanted to charge. With this latest news and at the recent Merc service, they even freely added a new MercedesMe feature through a complimentary OBD2 adaptor, allowing the car to communicate with a new iPhone app. Whilst I understand there's marketing data for Merc, it's still pleasant to know that new features are added to a 3 years old vehicle for free. This BMW tooth and nail pricing strategy will definitely keep me away for more time to come.
From another angle, I understand that BMW is proud of their own info display system. Back then, the BMW sales people tried to say that their system is far superior than CarPlay hence no need for CarPlay. It was very good and they obviously invested significantly into that feature. Is the present arrangement a way to force users to use and continue to justify the existence of their proprietary system? I'd say that they probably made a strategic error and is now burying their head in sand. Smartphone integration is an unavoidable development and is here to stay. Charging away is a very poor solution.
It's not often around here that we see this much consensus on a topic!
BMW is totally in the wrong here, although people will still keep buying their hideous crossovers and crossover/coupe monstrosities.
But when it comes to Apple doing the same thing (charge for Fast charger or USB to 3.5mm headphone jack adapter), the exact same people will say Apple is RIGHT. Hypocrisy at its best.
No, Apple doesn't change a SUBSCRIPTION fee for a charger or adapter. That tiny little "hook" in your wallet is what is galling to most everybody. I won't buy a BMW because of it.
BMW died with the E60/1 and the last true BMW was the E46 imho. Both of which I have. For my wife. I drive an E30, also imho, the best sedan ever made. Ever.
Sadly, I would never even entertain the thought of owning a modern BMW (with the outside exception of a 1st gen 1 series). We’re likely going to sell the E61 and keep the E46. The once great Bavarian automotive engineering prince (I’ll reserve king for Porsche) is no longer what it was.
Fast chargers kill batteries. If Apple provided a fast charger "BatteryGate" would be front page news and customer satisfaction would drop.
You know that they offer several "fast chargers" (their USB-C charges), specifically touting their benefits for the iPhone. These are straight from the iPhone accessories page.
The 18w Charger: The Apple 18W USB‑C Power Adapter offers fast, efficient charging at home, in the office, or on the go. While the power adapter is compatible with any USB‑C-enabled device, Apple recommends pairing it with the 11-inch iPad Pro and 12.9-inch iPad Pro (3rd generation) for optimal charging performance. You can also pair it with iPhone 8 or later to take advantage of the fast-charging feature.
The USB-C to Lightning Cable: You can also use this cable with your Apple 29W, 30W, 61W, or 87W USB-C Power Adapter to charge your iOS device, and even take advantage of the fast-charging feature on select iPhone and iPad Pro models.
The 30w charger: The Apple 30W USB‑C Power Adapter offers fast, efficient charging at home, in the office, or on the go. While the power adapter is compatible with any USB‑C–enabled device, Apple recommends pairing it with the 12-inch MacBook or the 13-inch MacBook Air with Retina display for optimal charging performance. You can also pair it with select iPhone and iPad Pro models to take advantage of the fast-charging feature. You can also pair it with iPhone 8 or later to take advantage of the fast-charging feature.
Apple even describes fast charging support in article HT208137:
Fast charge your iPhone
Use fast charge with iPhone 8 or later. You can recharge your iPhone up to 50 percent battery in 30 minutes.*
Fast charging gives you a quick and convenient way to recharge your iPhone 8 or later. Your iPhone fast charges up to 50 percent in 30 minutes when you use an Apple ISB-C to Lightning cable and one of these adapters:
Apple 18W, 29W, 30W, 61W, or 87W USB-C Power Adapter
A comparable third-party USB-C power adapter that supports USB Power Delivery (USB-PD)
If you're not sure which Apple Power Adapter you have, check the wattage on the bottom of the adapter:
* Testing conducted by Apple in August 2017 using preproduction iPhone X, iPhone 8, and iPhone 8 Plus units and software, and in August 2018 using preproduction iPhone XS, iPhone XS Max, and iPhone XR units and software, with accessory Apple USB-C Power Adapters (18W Model A1720, 29W Model A1540, 30W Model A1882, 61W Model A1718, 87W Model A1719). Fast-charge testing conducted with drained iPhone units. Charge time varies with environmental factors; actual results will vary.
I didn't know BMW was in dire financial straits it needed to nickel and dime their high end customers. If Chevrolet doesn't do it I would figure there is no reason for BMW to.
This is not new behavior for BMW or most of the German manufacturers. Hopefully the backlash will deter all of the manufacturers from adopting such a greedy practice. But some will just figure out that if they just imbed it in the cost of the car they could get more for the option and avoid the criticism.
I'm pretty sure that the cost of licensing CarPlay / AA is far far far far far less than the cost of developing their own infotainment system. Years ago every car had their own interpretation of the infotainment screen, some worse than the others. All of them had to license Tom Tom, Pandora and others, plus develop in house their terrible UI software. CarPlay is a SAVING for these companies, not an expense, as it is Apple / Google the ones that work the hard parts of the ecosystem and let the car manufacturers just pop a screen in the dash with minimal effort. Heck, in my older Mazda CX5 a bunch of bored guys implemented a working unauthorized Android Auto hack into the system in a few months of work.
Comments
As for hypocrisy, I don't think the analogy to fast chargers or legacy analog adapters is valid at all. Firstly because those obvious aren't annual charges (dur), and secondly because fast charging is a specialty use case that most nightly charging customers don't care about; and similar for legacy analog ports, most iPhone customers use the headphones in the box, making it again a special use case. Thus one-time purchases of special use case accessories is appropriate and not analogous to this annual BMW charge.
Sadly, I would never even entertain the thought of owning a modern BMW (with the outside exception of a 1st gen 1 series). We’re likely going to sell the E61 and keep the E46. The once great Bavarian automotive engineering prince (I’ll reserve king for Porsche) is no longer what it was.
Among the wealthy and a growing part of the population, the trend is clearly towards smaller Full Electric vehicles and BMW doesn't fit well in this trend. In fact, european cities are more and more forbidding vehicles entry, diesel motors and reducing parking spaces within their limits.
Arrogance doesn't pay !
They don't just want your money, they want it regularly.
From another angle, I understand that BMW is proud of their own info display system. Back then, the BMW sales people tried to say that their system is far superior than CarPlay hence no need for CarPlay. It was very good and they obviously invested significantly into that feature. Is the present arrangement a way to force users to use and continue to justify the existence of their proprietary system? I'd say that they probably made a strategic error and is now burying their head in sand. Smartphone integration is an unavoidable development and is here to stay. Charging away is a very poor solution.
The 18w Charger:
The Apple 18W USB‑C Power Adapter offers fast, efficient charging at home, in the office, or on the go. While the power adapter is compatible with any USB‑C-enabled device, Apple recommends pairing it with the 11-inch iPad Pro and 12.9-inch iPad Pro (3rd generation) for optimal charging performance. You can also pair it with iPhone 8 or later to take advantage of the fast-charging feature.
The USB-C to Lightning Cable:
You can also use this cable with your Apple 29W, 30W, 61W, or 87W USB-C Power Adapter to charge your iOS device, and even take advantage of the fast-charging feature on select iPhone and iPad Pro models.
The 30w charger:
The Apple 30W USB‑C Power Adapter offers fast, efficient charging at home, in the office, or on the go. While the power adapter is compatible with any USB‑C–enabled device, Apple recommends pairing it with the 12-inch MacBook or the 13-inch MacBook Air with Retina display for optimal charging performance. You can also pair it with select iPhone and iPad Pro models to take advantage of the fast-charging feature. You can also pair it with iPhone 8 or later to take advantage of the fast-charging feature.
Apple even describes fast charging support in article HT208137:
Fast charge your iPhone
Use fast charge with iPhone 8 or later. You can recharge your iPhone up to 50 percent battery in 30 minutes.*
Fast charging gives you a quick and convenient way to recharge your iPhone 8 or later. Your iPhone fast charges up to 50 percent in 30 minutes when you use an Apple ISB-C to Lightning cable and one of these adapters:
If you're not sure which Apple Power Adapter you have, check the wattage on the bottom of the adapter:
* Testing conducted by Apple in August 2017 using preproduction iPhone X, iPhone 8, and iPhone 8 Plus units and software, and in August 2018 using preproduction iPhone XS, iPhone XS Max, and iPhone XR units and software, with accessory Apple USB-C Power Adapters (18W Model A1720, 29W Model A1540, 30W Model A1882, 61W Model A1718, 87W Model A1719). Fast-charge testing conducted with drained iPhone units. Charge time varies with environmental factors; actual results will vary.