Pioneer can make every excuse in the world. That doesn't change that they aren't the only name in town and alpine teased a fall release.

"Fall" is in 10 days. Seems details of alpine's head unit are starting to leak. http://www.appradioworld.com/2014/09/could-alpine-beat-pioneer-at-carplay.html

If that's the real thing I'd welcome such a tiny machine in my very tiny convertible. I'm not going to throw away my 4000, it is a good head unit. However I know I'm putting my money where my mouth is and I'm never buying another pioneer product. Fool me once.

lol

That unit does look nice but no Bluetooth at all. I will wait for the update on my 8000

That unit does look nice but no Bluetooth at all. I will wait for the update on my 8000

That is a very odd omission but

1. The product hasn't been announced by alpine yet. The features it does or doesn't have are still rumors

2. The rumor does state that it will still have an external microphone for the radio so I question if that means whoever is plugged into CarPlay gets voice functionality? That part makes no sense.

I'm waiting till it is an actual launched product before I pass judgement on it.

Everyone has there own opinion and I made mine. You don't like it that is on you. If you would do your research on the unit it does state no Bluetooth.

They don't have a CD player for the unit also. It is an alpine unit for car play.

The Alpine is rumored to feature "a high tech 7-inch capacitive multi-touchscreen"? C'mon, Alpine--give us the 8-inch one!

JK: the Alpine unit actually sounds like the perfect device if (like me) all you want is CarPlay.

Everyone has there own opinion and I made mine. You don't like it that is on you. If you would do your research on the unit it does state no Bluetooth.

Edit: Nevermind. CEOutlook did an actual interview with an Alpine rep at IFA and that's where they got their info. This isn't a leak. This is an announcement from Alpine. Not having Bluetooth is such a weird ommsion. Make it simple, sure but why no bluetooth? 

Link for those interested. http://www.ceoutlook.com/2014/08/19/alpine-carplay-radio-revealed/

My original response below for context but ignore it. 

(Hey man, not my intention to start a battle. I'm not calling into question whether or not bluetooth is a good feature to have. I am calling into question the rumor that it has no bluetooth. I agree with you that that would be a very odd and unnecessary omission from the radio. 

Take away the cd player, the hdmi input, the ability to display to two rear monitors, and all the other random features the aftermarket likes to haphazardly dump into these head units without a care for quality of usage and save me some room in the dash as a result. I'm all in there. However, no bluetooth is just stupid. I'm hoping that the no bluetooth thing doesn't end up panning out when this thing is officially announced by Alpine.) 

It is cool on that part. I just want to see alpine come back and stronger. I use to be a huge alpine person in my younger days. I am sure they will have a firmware update for the unit.

It is cool on that part. I just want to see alpine come back and stronger. I use to be a huge alpine person in my younger days. I am sure they will have a firmware update for the unit.

Lol Lets not talk about future features coming from future software updates. When this thing is launched, what it does out of the box prior to my payment of it has to be worthy of whatever dollar amount they want to try to charge for it. 

Regardless Pioneer and Alpine aren't the only names in the aftermarket head unit game. Hopefully soon we will have real choices on where to get our future radios with full support of Apple Carplay. That will drive down the price of things like capacitive displays and larger higher resolution displays, which is what I feel people that want carplay really care about having. Not whether it supports changing the color of the front face to 67 different LED presets. 

What unit you have now?

I have been wondering about Carplay and bluetooth for awhile now. If this is 100% true (which it seems it is), it would mean that Carplay is not dependant on bluetooth which makes sense. I have been thinking for awhile that the USB1 and USB2 setup on the NEX units has something to do with Carplay connecticity and this makes me think that even more. 

Alpine just two hours ago tweeted:

"@AppRadioWorld In all seriousness, it'll be coming to the market soon, within the next 1-2 months is safe to say." https://twitter.com/AlpineUSA/status/510114772532985857

In response to this:

"@AlpineUSA Is the iLX-007 Alpine's upcoming CarPlay head unit? Are any details on a possible ETA available?" https://twitter.com/AppRadioWorld/status/509996960330162176

What unit you have now?

I have the nex-4000 and the Appradio 2 in another car.

I have no issues with a radio that does CarPlay and nothing else honestly. I was fine with that with Appradio. I was just hoping Appradio mode would be worth it. It wasn't. It's garbage. Once I finally get to play with CarPlay, and see how it runs, I'll know if it's good enough that if I had a head unit that did CarPlay and nothing else would be good enough for me.

Alpine just two hours ago tweeted:

"@AppRadioWorld In all seriousness, it'll be coming to the market soon, within the next 1-2 months is safe to say." https://twitter.com/AlpineUSA/status/510114772532985857

In response to this:

"@AlpineUSA Is the iLX-007 Alpine's upcoming CarPlay head unit? Are any details on a possible ETA available?" https://twitter.com/AppRadioWorld/status/509996960330162176

If that's their timeframe, I'd say there's a very good chance they beat Pioneer to market. Pioneer's silence right now, so close to the end-of-summer date, speaks volumes.

If that's their timeframe, I'd say there's a very good chance they beat Pioneer to market. Pioneer's silence right now, so close to the end-of-summer date, speaks volumes.

They are probably desperately scrambling like a teenager the night before a final to correct whatever is still wrong with the firmware, but something tells me that comes September 23rd we will get an apology letter just like what people waiting for avicsync got.

I'm still betting on carplay releasing once ios 8 is publicly released... The latest when the next iphone ships.

Thank you for the very well written article. At least it is good to hear that apple made them hold off because pioneer was originally going to ship the same buggy product they always do and apple didn't allow it.

They deserve every bit of bad press. Apple never promised summer. It was clear to alpine it would take till fall to launch CarPlay right.

Once the other head unit launches I will be very interested to see how it compares to the everything and the kitchen sink NEX line.

Thank you for the very well written article. At least it is good to hear that apple made them hold off because pioneer was originally going to ship the same buggy product they always do and apple didn't allow it.

 

They deserve every bit of bad press. Apple never promised summer. It was clear to alpine it would take till fall to launch CarPlay right.

 

Once the other head unit launches I will be very interested to see how it compares to the everything and the kitchen sink NEX line.

I'd like to see what the Alpine unit will have (if anything) in terms of manageable audio settings such as time alignment and EQ. Despite all the flaws of the App mode on my NEX4000, I do very much enjoy the sound quality I'm able to achieve with those settings.

The light at the end of the tunnel?

It's a train.