Mobile giant Nokia and car-systems specialists Clarion have announced a partnership to push a technology they are calling Terminal Mode. As the press release reads, “Terminal Mode, [is] a technology that will enable a totally new way of mobile devices and car infotainment systems to seamlessly work together.” This is a technology that Nokia and Clarion plan on supplementing with content from Nokia’s Ovi Store, and one hopes will be and “industry standard.” The idea is to create a back-end system, and front-end interface, that will become the standard for car manufactures, allowing both OEMs and consumers to customize and tailor their in-car experience. We’ve got the full release for you after the bounce.

Clarion and Nokia Team Up on Connected Car Technology

TOKYO, June 22 /PRNewswire/ — Clarion Co., Ltd., a global leader in car audio and electronics, and Nokia Corporation, the world’s leading mobile device producer today announced that they are collaborating on Terminal Mode, a technology that will enable a totally new way of mobile devices and car infotainment systems to seamlessly work together. Both companies say this collaboration will further boost the development of next-generation smart car infotainment systems.

Through this partnership Clarion aims to develop the smartphone interface that Nokia and Consumer Electronics for Automotive, CE4A are proposing as industry standard, as well as to build an application service business for in-car devices utilizing the Ovi Store application service by Nokia. Clarion is also targeting accelerated development and greater commercial dominance of in-car information systems for the Europe and North America markets where Nokia has a strong presence, as well as China and other emerging markets.

“By integrating the Terminal Mode technology into in-car information systems such as car navigation developed by Clarion, we will be able to bring to customers the vast array of applications and services available to smartphones on in-car devices. The integration of in-car devices with smartphones will provide better user experiences for consumers and lead to radical changes in in-car information systems,” says Tatsuhiko Izumi, president of Clarion.

“Through a stronger collaboration with Nokia and NAVTEQ, which supplies map information for our car navigation systems in overseas markets, it will be possible to utilize smartphone functions and services for in-car information system functions and support services such as intelligent transport systems (ITS), advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS), and navigation coordination.

“Nokia believes that Terminal Mode is an ideal base for industry innovation, allowing existing and new kinds of services to be extended into the car,” says Vesa Luiro, Automotive Director at Nokia. “We are already committed to collaboration with the automotive industry and this alliance with Clarion will further improve the user experience in the car and enable consumers to access their favorite internet services and smartphone applications, wherever they are.”

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What happens when you mix together a NetBook, a portable GPS, and a PMP? You get the Clarion MiND, “Mobile Internet Navigation Device”. The new MiND uses the low power Intel Atom processor (running at 800Mhz) found in many netbooks and Linux as the core behind its multimedia and navigation features. The MiND uses Wifi and Bluetooth to establish an Internet connection so you can browse websites on its 4.8 inch, WVGA 800 x 480 resolution touchscreen. It utilizes Firefox as the browser and offers a full HTML browsing experience as well as Flash support. As a PMP, it supports MP3, WMA, AAC, Ogg, H.264, WMV, MPEG-4 and Real video. An optional in-car dock will deliver real-time traffic data and will also route the audio from the navigation directions and music files through your car speaker system. Very Cool! Every rose has its thorn and the thorn for the MiND is the battery life. Rated at only 2 hours for the standard battery and 4 hours for the extended battery, you won’t be using this baby for very long without a power source nearby. Nonetheless, this is an innovative mashup of some the most popular mobile technologies out there. Kudos for that, Clarion.

[Via DAPreview]

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