Someone installed a Pioneer unit into his 06 BMW 3 Series. Lots of stuff stopped working. and the dashboard was a mess. The R56 Mini's have similar electronics to the latest BMWs so the same result can be expected.

 

Perhaps I made too much of a blanket statement, but the trend is clear with display integration. The most obvious example is the display in the Prius. However you can also see from almost all manufacturers (including BMW) that the factory Nav display does more than just GPS. The article you referenced predicted that Nav will become standard in many cars. I think you can be sure that manufacturers will integrate the display with other functions as well.

The point I wanted to make is the following. Increasingly in the future, if you don't order the factory Nav, you may miss out on features (unrelated to GPS) that are available only through the screen integration. This is already starting to happen on the R56. It is a valid argument that you can get a better and cheaper navigation function through aftermarket. However navigation function itself is no longer the only consideration for choosing the factory option.

 

Even the R53 integrated the trip computer functions into the Nav display. And I have a friend that integrated a DVD/TV into the 1st gen display (I try not to get in front of him even with my 40 extra horses).

 

Now that is a good point. I assume these additional functions are not related additional "options" meaning more money and not essential to the car. Obviously they cant force you to buy an expensive option to get essential functions.

A good example might be the PCM in the current generation p-cars. By adding it you get a bunch of different functions you can live without. Add another option and you can change some of the car's programming. Add GPS another option and you get "extended nav" ... off road, add another option and you get memory and can download everything to a PC, add another option and you can get integrated GSM cell phone. I think you see the drift. You can add, literally, thousands of dollars in options ... all profit. So yes, I see your point ... this stuff already exists. But then again, I see no point for spending $1K for an integrated cell phone solution or another $1K to download stuff to a PC ... I am sure some ppl do buy this stuff but its a very expensive solution.

But, in general, yes, I do see that.

I believe the TTAC article is just saying it should be standard ... and will be one day. But for now ... dropping $2- 3K is an expensive solution.

 

on most cars i like the large nav display for radio/CD/mp3's.

i rarely use nav... so telenav on my bb suits me just fine.