BMW, in particular, has gravitated to Microsoft systems, although the company has announced wins with Honda, Volvo and others as well.
Microsoft has kept its car talk to a dull roar in recent months, but is expected to talk more about its effort in January, when Chairman Bill Gates delivers a keynote speech at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.
Microsoft is just one of many companies offering an operating system for use in automotive electronics, competing against QNX Software Systems, Wind River and Linux makers, among others.
As of this summer, analysts said the company had just about 10 percent of the market for in-car electronics, an industry that itself has fallen short of early estimates. Only about 13 percent to 14 percent of cars are connected to a network today, Magney said, although other cars have systems for navigation or entertainment.
The latest version of its Windows for Automotive software supports Bluetooth connections, allowing in-car systems to tap the power of a cell phone to access information.
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