The limited selection of CarPlay apps has not grown much since its launch, with one of the most prominent hold-outs being Pandora. In a recent interview with Fox Business, however, Pandora CFO Mike Herring said that the company plans to add CarPlay support soon. “We’ll definitely be in CarPlay,” Herring said in the interview.
In the past, Pandora has told us that it is in “frequent discussions” with Apple about various topics, although it has denied supporting CarPlay. The interesting idea with Pandora for CarPlay, however, is that Apple has to sanction which apps gain support for its in-car offering. CarPlay already supports iTunes Radio and with Apple planing to launch its streaming music service at WWDC, there’s a possibility that the company might not allow Pandora to support CarPlay.
Also in the interview, Herring addressed Pandora’s overall relationship with Apple since the acquisition of Beats Music and launch of iTunes Radio. Herring said the two companies have a “frenemy kind of relationship going on.” He went on to say that while the two companies are “close partners,” they have a “very interesting relationship.” Herring credits Pandora for being one of the original reasons it was”fun to have an iPhone.”
Herring did not define a timetable for launching Pandora support for CarPlay, and with Apple having final say, there could certainly be some road bumps in the process. This morning, CarPlay gained support for the Audio Books iPhone app. A running list of CarPlay-enabled apps can be found here.
