Alpine announced the first aftermarket wireless Apple CarPlay receiver during this year’s CES 2017, along with an expected release date as soon as this February. However if you’ve recently looked at your calendar lately, we’re now in March, and there has been no word on Alpine’s new bundle of updated in-car tech available in stores.
Some frustrated tweeters have asked retailers – such as Crutchfield – on the delay…
We can't ship them till we get them from Alpine. As soon as we can start getting them to people we will.
— Crutchfield (@Crutchfield) March 2, 2017
…and has caused fingers to be pointed Alpine’s direction, and this has caused Alpine USA to spill the beans on when exactly people with pre-orders will be getting their Alpine iLX-107…
We're finalizing some thing with Apple, hoping within a couple months!
— Alpine Electronics (@AlpineUSA) February 27, 2017
Alpine USA claim they are ‘finalising something with Apple’, and that they hope they will ship to vendors in ‘a couple of months!’
Could this setback be Apple’s own doing, perhaps holding back the release of the iLX-107 due to exclusivity or particular announcements, possibly in June during their WWDC conference and keynote? To me ‘a couple of months’ seems very casual coming from Alpine USA, and it is likely going to be around a three-month wait, which does coincide with WWDC week in June.
WWDC is where new iOS updates will be announced. It will possibly showcase the reveal of iOS 10 and its new line-up of features, which could include some wireless announcements for the upcoming iPhone 8 as well as improvements in CarPlay, including maybe wireless charging and connection.
If you’ve pre-ordered the iLX-107, it looks like you’re in for wait of at least a few months, whilst Apple works with Alpine to iron out the kinks with their wireless platform and/or announce something greater during WWDC week – our fingers are crossed for great things here at CarPlay Life.
[Thanks for the tip: @bmarriner1990]
