Drive Time: The Connection Between Smartphones And Cars

Toyota recently tried, and then quickly recalled, one experiment to target smartphone users — a new iPhone theme and ad campaign distributed through the leading jailbreak app store, Cydia — which was canned when Toyota ran into trouble with Apple (NSDQ: AAPL). While that may have proven to be something of a marketing fail, it seems that Toyota is at least barking up the right tree, according to a new study from the mobile ad network Greystripe.

A survey, gathering data from Greystripe’s iPhone and Android devices on its ad network between November 2010 and February 2011, found that more than a quarter of iPhone, iPod Touch and Android users plan to buy a car in the next year, with 78 percent planning to use their mobile devices to “facilitate” the process — which could mean anything from gathering information to, in some cases, even buying the vehicle.

This apparently works out to a much higher percentage than the rest of the U.S adult population. Taking just the intention to purchase a new car, smartphone users seem to be three times as likely to buy one: 15.6 percent (Greystripe) versus 5.5 percent (the general U.S. figure, derived by MarketingForecast.com).

The connection between mobile and automotive is not just about more marketing and advertising — although that is clearly the area that most interests Greystripe. The increasing role of mobile content in cars is something getting explored by car makers, who are looking more at developing “connected vehicles” (think Android cars here) that can use mobile networks and GPS for mapping and other location-based services; as well as integrating car data into mobile apps like OnStar.

Just last week, BMW announced a new VC fund, the BMW iVentures Capital Fund, which has $100 million to invest in new startups working at the nexus of mobile and automotive technologies. The first of these is an app called My City Way, and it plans on announcing another investment soon.

Greystripe says that spend on its network from auto brands has grown by 113 percent in the period between Q1 2010 and Q1 2011.