MGR Head Unit/On Board Computer with Android OS?

[Radioguy]

Originally Posted by picky747

If you are going to run with the latest technology it would seem fitting to drop the old tech of cd and dvd player.These introduce a mechanical element which is more susceptible to breakdown.With the cost of hard drives plummeting then a USB interface would be a much cheaper option to access your media with a much reduced storage footprint.

I Agree, And I would imagine that CD's and DVD's have seen their better days.

AS storage and speed grows, they are becoming Dinosaurs
I Would guess that if and when this happens prices would be reduced

[Radioguy]

Originally Posted by rovexCDTi

Actually yes i do worry that the Android unit will age much more than the WinCE one. While its prettier and flashier android is much more exposed to aging because of its apps. Once it starts to lose the ability to run them, it becomes less useful.

However, playing Angry birds on your car is quite cool.. and i dont suppose age will be a problem for a good while.

Remember, they will be updatable from the factory

A Flash of the update , maybe (Not sure about this and my own surmising) you will be able to update it from the net in the car...

[rovexCDTi]

Not seen much evidence that mechless units are any cheaper. They seem to be just as pricey as conventional units. The whole CD/DVD mechanism costs less than £5 anyway.

[rovexCDTi]

Originally Posted by Radioguy

Remember, they will be updatable from the factory

A Flash of the update , maybe (Not sure about this and my own surmising) you will be able to update it from the net in the car...

Only if they actually create the upgrade.. Chinese companies arent known for prompt or even any software upgrades.

[Radioguy]

Originally Posted by guru

I'm with omajority on here, I would love an Android head unit however the price is way, way off! If it was half the price then I would consider it however at $950 it's a total non-starter. As it goes I have a bluetooth head unit and Android phone to I have all the functionality, its just not in quite such a neat package.

With regards to the resale value I suspect that this will be hurt quite badly by Android unless you can keep up with all the updates. Whilst 2.2 may be acceptable now in a couple of years time when everyone is running android 5.0 it will make the units seem even more out of date.

Hi guru

Funny how markets go , Last year we were selling onboard computers with Windows XP for $1600 , Really poor Quality

I assure you that these are top quality in both construction and development.
We have one in the shop now , testing should be about 10 days

$475.00 will never fly ! The regular MGR head Units are more than that !

What I have discovered over the years is that , like computers, some are happy with the older technology and other want to be on the cutting edge.

As I said above , these WILL hold a resale value much better than the regular head Units

[Radioguy]

Originally Posted by rovexCDTi

Not seen much evidence that mechless units are any cheaper. They seem to be just as pricey as conventional units. The whole CD/DVD mechanism costs less than £5 anyway.

That may be so, but the selling is higher, the assembly costs and the shipping costs, and the warranty replacement costs are all higher.

[Radioguy]

Originally Posted by rovexCDTi

Only if they actually create the upgrade.. Chinese companies arent known for prompt or even any software upgrades.

True enough, But this one is different .

[rovexCDTi]

I understand windows xp car units were a lot more, but they arent the same thing. The component costs for a PC are massively higher.

An ARM CPU is much much cheaper than any x86 CPU, and it doesn't need as much cooling. The RAM is cheaper due to the way its mounted. A couple of gigs of flash RAM is cheaper than any hard drive and of course there is the XP license which i believe is about £35 for a portable/netbook like device.

I would probably pay £475 for the Android unit but thats the absolute upper limit.

[Teflon]

Sean,

Do these units have reverse camera functionality?

Cheers,

Cliff

[Radioguy]

Originally Posted by Teflon

Sean,

Do these units have reverse camera functionality?

Cheers,

Cliff

HI Cliff, Yes, they will. Sorry , saw your comments earlier and am a bit distracted answering the 83 morning emails as well !

Sean