Analyst firm Frost & Sullivan said that while automotive firms’ “unwillingness to cede control over in-vehicle infotainment systems” has slowed the growth of the in-car app market, major players in Europe and North America are “moving towards an app-based infotainment approach where smartphones serve as the core of infotainment systems”.

According to the company, consumer willingness to pay for the “next generation [human machine interface] and smartphone-like interfaces inside cars will create new revenue streams”.

Krishna Jayaraman, senior research analyst for the company, said: "OEMs are keen on developing vehicle-centric application stores. The availability of broadband internet in the car will be crucial for a viable business model centred around content and apps delivered to cars; this ensures high throughput, low latency, and lower costs."

However, it was noted that there is a possibility that automotive app stores will be focused on vehicle-centric features including diagnostics, navigation, tyre pressure monitoring and other location-based services. In contrast, infotainment features such as internet radio, social networking and media are more likely to be features of smartphones, “as redundancy of downloads and payment will bother consumers”.

“App stores will require a number of activities, application development by partnering with third party app developers, service provision, and platform support. While it is evident that revenues will be shared between multiple participants, OEMs control on the content provision, ergonomics, and HMI will definitely open new, revenue yielding business models”, Jayaraman said.