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Originally Posted by blueSL

Maybe I'm missing something here, but Mercedes offer integration with specific phones and of course it would be great if you could just plug in any phone you like but the fault does not lie at Mercedes door.

It's the failure of the phone manufacturers to provide open access to their phones and their mistaken belief that they will protect themselves commercially by sticking to proprietary interfaces. It's also the case that Motorola, as the major indigenous vendor of buggy, difficult to use phones, has a stranglehold on the US market which illustrates very well the problems of lack of competition.

You can also think of a world where, no matter what the make, all phones had the same interface to connect to the outside world. Sadly, that's not the case and the lesson learned when the IBM PC was introduced nearly 25 years ago means that the consumer misses out.

However, aside from the fact that the phone in my car works fine, I do find it difficult to share your enthusiasm. It is, after all, just a phone.

Motorola did not learn from Apple. Apple tried to be proprietary, and they almost went out of business. Now Apple is having great success with the IPOD and any company can make it.