Ford reportedly dumping Microsoft from My Ford Touch for Blackberry software

[Perry]

It's being reported that Ford has decided to kick Microsoft to the curb in favor of a software switch to former handheld mega-success Blackberry. The switch will have Ford using BB's QNX operating system going forward. Although Blackberry has fallen on (very) hard times when it comes to handheld mobile devices, it's still in the game when it comes to things like this; QNX has gotten good reviews from multiple angles. It is unclear, however, whether this switch will be something that can be done in retrograde fashion for those of us with vehicles already in our garages with the lovely (cough-cough) MFT system already installed. My initial reflexive reaction is to say that this will likely lead to a better product going forward, but will leave stranded existing users. I hope that's not the case.

 

[MKVIIST]

Good find Perry. I hope this means more customization for the user.

 

[Colin1337]

Hopefully we'll get a new patch if this comes to fruition.

 

[RyGuyFIST83]

Alot of people don't like MFT,but I gotta say I have no issues,not one now since I fixed the iPhone message problem. To date this has been the best tech car I've had,and I've had quite a few. I don't get it,there's so many things it offers,I love all the options my Nav offers for gas prices,weather,ski conditions, points of interest, there's a lot it has to offer. I really am enjoying it,and mostly I am doing everything hands free.

-ry

 

[Perry]

If they kinda leave us hanging, I suppose it might give impetus to those with the requisite skills to do some serious software hacks that might give us things we've not even thought of yet. Hey, we can wish, anyway, right?

 

[Ronbo]

Alot of people don't like MFT,but I gotta say I have no issues,not one now since I fixed the iPhone message problem. To date this has been the best tech car I've had,and I've had quite a few. I don't get it,there's so many things it offers,I love all the options my Nav offers for gas prices,weather,ski conditions, points of interest, there's a lot it has to offer. I really am enjoying it,and mostly I am doing everything hands free.

-ry

I agree with this. MFT has been very easy to use, especially with voice control. Based on what I read before buying the car I fully expected to hate it.

 

[TuxedoST]

This won't correct the issues. Moving to new platform will only change underlying code, and hardware requirements. It won't change fords designers and UX specialists. My guess is if they employ the same divisions to create the new platform, it'll perform largely the same. It's sort of like the many many flavored of Linux desktop environments. Small changes here and there, but in the end, it's still gnome or KDE.

 

[Perry]

Seen on TuxedoST's sig line:

14' Tuxedo Black FiST

A fourteen-foot FiST? Is yours really 8 inches longer than everyone else's? . . . wait a minute . . . don't answer that!

 

[Froctor]

Being a BlackBerry fan (yes, we do exist! ) I welcome that change. I really hope I can upgrade my system for QNX when the time comes.

Good job Ford!

 

[NorthernProducer]

I think it is a good decision on Ford's part. I've had 4 vehicles with Sync/MFT and it was horribly glitchy on 2 of those...one so bad I gave up on using it (dealer exhausted his tech expert trying to fix that one). I just read today in a publication that announced this change (sorry can't remember which pub) that there is no technical reason why our existing systems couldn't be upgraded to use the QNX operating system. Let's hope Ford gets it right this time and lets all of us have the new OS.

 

[xplorguy]

On multiple financial sites today.....Ford announced the change from Microsoft. An article author or two suggested that the latest mft software was working fairly well and some issues remained due to Ford MyTouch, etc. Indication is the new software and hardware would not appear until calendar year 2016. I noticed the new and refreshed 2015 Focus which will be out in second half of 2014 seems to utililize the current software and hardware. The new re-fresh is a big deal as Ford tries to keep the Focus at Number 1 in global sales.........

 

[TheStig]

Alot of people don't like MFT,but I gotta say I have no issues,not one now since I fixed the iPhone message problem. To date this has been the best tech car I've had,and I've had quite a few. I don't get it,there's so many things it offers,I love all the options my Nav offers for gas prices,weather,ski conditions, points of interest, there's a lot it has to offer. I really am enjoying it,and mostly I am doing everything hands free.

-ry

im in the same boat, my MFT works flawlessly and I use it quite often. Im very happy with it.

 

[TuxedoST]

Same. I find my voice to text feature on my mobile device kind of sucks, but that's no fault of MFT.

 

[EdwardFdz]

Never had a problem with my MFT.. except for the lack of SiriusXM =(

 

[xplorguy]

I have not had any issues with the current iteration either. I think the car guys are going to a combination touch screen and joy stick on the console or just the joy stick and tabs to push. I think this is probably the way Ford will go......... The new Mazda 3, for example, has a combination touch and console user interface. I must say, I have enjoyed voice command and it works pretty well for me.

 

[EdwardFdz]

Hope this will not let us outdated with our Microsoft systems...

 

[gojagz]

I have been pleasantly surprised with how easy and well MFT works. I have read tons of horror stories, but havent had any problems so far (knocks on wood).

 

[alexanderfreenote]

IMO this kind of sucks. I actually like having the Microsoft brand in my car. Never been a fan of blackberry but I guess we'll wait and see how it works out. Although I'll admit the screen is a little unresponsive and lags but blackberry will probably be the same if not worse.

Ford probably got a good deal from blackberry since the company is just about done, why on earth they would make the switch besides the money factor I will never understand.

 

[CivicAssassin]

I haven't had an issue in a few months. But, when I first got the car, I had a couple glitches. 1) I was having problems with the voice commands, and the push-button on the steering wheel not working. While driving home one night, the NAV froze up, then after a few minutes the display shutdown, and "updated". Worked fine for about a month. 2) Some Sirius update popped up, locking up the whole system for a few days. Pulled the fuse to reboot the system, haven't used Sirius since, and haven't had another problem in months.

 

[godofbiscuits]

As much as I'm an apple fan boy, I gotta say highly customizable and reliable interfaces for tech stuff for not much money pretty much screams Android.