When Apple Drives, Who Calls 'Shotgun'?

A recent study conducted by KPMG revealed that 63% of automotive executives -- including those at Ford(F) , GM(GM) , Chrysler and several others -- said they expect to see the automobile eventually being tied directly to the telecommunications industry. That will include mobile WiFi access, 4G capability as well as various speech recognition options such as Apple's popular Siri -- whether for search or instruction.

Furthermore, these same automobile leaders believe that computer-related services in the auto, including safety components, will become integrated with existing standard features like music, Internet and telecommunications to formulate the "smartcar" -- all done with the requirement of an IP address.

So essentially, once the smartphone market gets saturated, there will be "smartcars" and "smart homes" to keep technology companies such as Apple in business for many years to come.

Another winner in the IP race will possibly be Time Warner -- in my opinion, this is where investors need to start transferring their attention. Not only does Time Warner have a large library of content that includes music, movies, TV, etc., but it is also in the IP broadband delivery business -- it will be able to offer mobile broadband, cable television and broadband radio to any IP device anytime and anywhere.

I think more than anything the 24/7 access will prove to be a key difference for a company like Time Warner. And of course it can offer such access while also saving customers money by bundling it all with your existing home Internet package and delivering it the automobile.

Bottom Line

With all of these possibilities around the corner, coupled with the fact that Verizon(VZ) recently announced plans to make data charges more affordable for family plans of more than one phone, it is hard to envision how Apple will not take over the entire car.

Not only has it started by becoming a navigator (of sorts) but it is also in the business of distributing content from its popular iTunes store and it offers users the ability to store all of their content on its cloud to make it easily transferable from any device.

This likely signals the end of any progress for the likes of Pandora and Sirius within the automobile as the evolution of technology is now slowly taking away all of the arguments that once made them both seem unbeatable.