Pioneer opens up Internet Services Platform - helps compatibility, offering consumers seamless connectivity in home and car

One of the early announcements that interested us from this year's Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas (2010 CES) came from Pioneer Corporation, that announced it's opening up its PAIS platform for connected devices (i.e. networked, internet connected products) to other device manufacturers, with the potential to "help grow adoption and differentiation, especially in the automotive space". By creating a common, stable method for accessing the wide array of Internet service APIs, the industry can offer consumers what they want - that their devices work together, whether in the home, car, train or on foot, regardless of manufacturer.

The PAIS platform is a device portal that handles the interface between the myriad of Internet services and connected devices. PAIS is designed to handle multiple device and application types including in-vehicle telematics, MIDs, TVs, home theatre and smartphone Apps, and it promises to reduce the impact of service and API changes. It's designed to meet the needs of device manufacturers and service providers. The manufacturers get a stable platform they can use to add Internet services to their devices without concern over inevitable services changes, and which allows them the potential to participate in future revenue from providing services via their products. Content and service providers get a widespread, embedded platform to drive revenue.

But ultimately the important thing is what it should mean to us, the public and business users of the various connected devices. As consumers we should get a seamless home/car/work experience and peace of mind that our devices will continue to work with other services even if certain ones change or become no longer available.

“Consumers want their devices to work together, so it is inevitable that single-vendor connected solutions will lose their interest,” said Akira Haeno, Senior Managing Director and Representative at Pioneer. “Our platform addresses this consumer need while at the same time addressing key device vendor needs of rapid deployment, differentiation, cost savings, and revenue participation.”

"The low power Intel® Atom™ processor makes it possible to implement a rich Internet experience in a highly portable connected product. Pioneer's Internet service platform delivers a unique value proposition to device makers using Intel® architecture. I believe it will help grow adoption and differentiation, especially in the automotive space," said Ton Steenman, VP, Intel Architecture Group and GM, Low Power Embedded Products Division, Intel.

What sets apart today's consumer products from those of the past is the variety and usefulness of the services and what that does to the user's experience of the product. Mark Hirsch, Vice President at Inventec, said, “The PAIS platform allows our (business) customers to rapidly innovate, transforming Internet services from a cost center into a revenue center.”

The PAIS platform presents open-standard interfaces for voice UI, navigation and maps, local search, social networking, music and radio, and video and TV, among other services. These interfaces enable device manufacturers to add new service offerings quickly, eliminating the need for significant investment in proprietary solutions and saving the risk of having to guess the next 'killer app'. The platform also enables a revenue share opportunity for manufacturers, with the potential to receive a percentage of revenue generated from consumer subscriptions to basic and premium packages, as well as advertising.

Pioneer have been busy holding private presentations on PAIS in a suite at 2010 International CES and the plan is to open the platform up to device partners to allow third-party products to start shipping possibly in the autumn this year.