Microsoft and Toyota plan April 6 event, hint new car tech
updated 06:45 pm EDT, Tue April 5, 2011
Microsoft and Toyota to have April 6 event
Microsoft and Toyota late Tuesday organized a special event for April 6 at 4PM Eastern. The two said little about what it would involve but alluded to a "collaboration" between them. It was important enough that Microsoft chief Steve Ballmer and his Toyota equivalent, Akio Toyoda, would both be present.
The deal may be for car technology from Microsoft's Auto platform. Microsoft already has deep inroads through its tie-in with Ford for Sync and could give Toyota a voice-activated system that not only ties into calls, music, and GPS but also smartphone apps. Toyota's cars have grown increasingly smart by necessity and will lean even more that direction when its Prius C and Prius V models go on sale.
Other possibilities include a deal for cloud services through Microsoft's Azure, Office 365, or another platform. Microsoft would be less likely to organize a special event just to add a new customer for a relatively established service.
