OnStar Expands Beyond GM Cars

OnStar Expands Beyond GM Cars

By Paul Seredynski January 5, 2011

OnStar announced at the 2011 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) Tuesday night that it will make its services available outside of the General Motors product line via an aftermarket rearview mirror.

The new rearview mirror will be available in the U.S. this spring and retail for $299.

OnStar President Chris Preuss also announced a new Android-based text-to-speech phone app that will handle text message duties including Facebook updates.

For the first time, OnStar will reach outside its GM-car-only subscriber base with a retail consumer product. OnStar currently claims six million subscribers in the U.S., Canada and China, but will try to grow that number significantly by offering the mirror for the 20 top-selling cars in the United States -- what OnStar claims is a potential aftermarket of 55 million vehicles, with more models to follow.

"For years, thousands of drivers have asked us to get OnStar in vehicles that didn't feature it as standard," said Preuss. "This move into the consumer electronics space... represents a quantum leap forward in our plans to grow our business and provide a strong new revenue base for GM and OnStar from which we can further develop our core offerings in the factory-equipped market."

Expanding beyond the GM portfolio and into the retail space should help OnStar leverage its significant brand equity and infrastructure investments, adapting a cellphone model to provide relatively inexpensive hardware and seeking profits through service charges.

The required subscription plans will start at $199 a year or $18.95 month, and provide the same recognizable OnStar safety and convenience features including automated crash response. Best Buy has signed on as the strategic retail partner, and the recommended professional installation is expected to run about $100.

Paul Seredynski is covering the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this week.

Preuss also announced to the CES gathering that OnStar will provide an Android smartphone app by the second half of 2011 that will read incoming text messages, and allow drivers to respond via voice commands. Working with technology partner Nuance, the app will begin testing in January, and arrive sometime after Q2 2011. The application will also handle incoming Facebook updates, reading them aloud and letting drivers respond via voice. No pricing was announced on the Android app, though Preuss did mention that it would be made available for other smartphone platforms (read iPhone). -- Paul Seredynski, Senior Editor

Paul Seredynski:  is an AutoObserver Senior Editor. Follow @AutoObserver on Twitter.