Less than five years after its launch, GM has announced that it will phase out the in-vehicle Marketplace app.
Per a recent report from CNBC, which cites a statement by GM spokeswoman Stephanie Obendorfer, the GM Marketplace app will be discontinued next month, with no replacement announced at this time.
According to the report, the free app suffered from low usage rates and growth. Although GM has declined to provide official usage rates, one unnamed engineer has stated that the active user base was measured in the thousands, as compared to the millions of GM vehicles in which the feature is equipped.
Originally launched late in 2017, the GM Marketplace app provides GM vehicle owners with in-vehicle opportunities to purchase goods and services, including food, gasoline, as well as make restaurant table reservations. The app is available across GM’s four U.S. brands, including Buick, Cadillac, Chevy, and GMC, and also offered partnerships with dealers for service, coupons for gasoline, and food.
General Motors informed vehicle owners about the app discontinuation with an email sent on Friday.
“We routinely evaluate our services to ensure they provide the best experience for our members,” the email states, per CNBC. “In this spirit, we have decided to discontinue our Marketplace services.”
Looking ahead, GM has plans to roll out a variety of new services and platforms using the latest technology developments. For example, back in October, GM announced its new Future Roads project, a data-driven platform that will work with government agencies to provide critical insights into road conditions and potential safety concerns, including risk scoring, crash hotspots, and seatbelt usage. GM also says it plans to release a variety of enhanced subscription services to create new revenue streams, as well as expand its OnStar Insurance service to all 50 states by 2022. With regard to OnStar Insurance, GM will leverage onboard sensors and data collection to track vehicle usage and driving habits, using data to offer discounts and incentives to safe drivers.
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Comments
Weird…
How will we ever find places to eat and get fuel?
Maybe gm will develop a device that fits in your hand and does everything the marketplace could do and more…Like make calls, text message, surf the internet, and download all kinds of apps that are capable of many things…you could even take it with you outside the car.
They can build an entire wireless network nationwide and charge a monthly subscription for customers to have access to that network…
…One can only dream…
I agree. That new device can be called… let’s think of something catchy… HandStar!
Aren’t these apps already available on your smartphones? My iPhone 7 Plus has apps that allow me to locate places to eat, get gas and hotels to stay at along with being able to order from many businesses or restaurants too!
GM probably recognizes this and feels they no longer need to have a signed deal with an outside source to do what already has been done.
I do hope though that they allow all GM vehicles soon to be able to download the Video Recorder app so we don’t need to add external dashcams which obstruct our views. That would be nice 👍🏻
Amazing thing I gust got…called a cell phone!
I can do ALL of that stuff and it fits in my pocket! LOL….SMH
Just heard from relatives that On-Star is dropping features and changing cause of 5G depending on the of vehicle.
It is because the 3G networks that many of the older vehicles use are being phased out. The newer vehicles use 4G and 5G neither one of which will be phased out in the foreseeable future.
5G ?!?!?!?!?!?
Just another huge hoax and a scheme to sell “5g” phones.
Who has 5G ?????
I do, and my entire area has 5G. I am way up in NE Tennessee and my carrier has had it here for well over a year. I don’t care about it one way or the other, but, it is here, as it is in most places now.
Depending on who your carrier is 4G LTE is better then the regular 5G. Example Verizon if it doesn’t say 5GUW then 4G LTE is faster and better.
Newer vehicles will also use 4G if no 5G is in range.
Wow! How can anyone give a thumbs down to a factual statement on how a technology works?
5G will work with iPhones 6 and up! If you have an older iPhone, it IS time to upgrade!🤷♂️🤷♂️
iPhone 12 was the first iphone to have 5G antenna.
Older iphones still use the 4G LTE antenna, and that band is still used by Verizon and other cellular providers.
If you see older phones say 5G in their little icon in the top when on a cellular network it’s cause cellular providers are advertising that their networks are 5G capable in that area…. There was a whole controversy about that.
If you have Verizon and it doesn’t say 5GUW the. 4G LTE is better
It was useful for paying for Fuel in the car quickly without having to use the station and getting your card skimmed >.>
I think GM just suffered in teaching people how to use the Marketplace and providing tutorials. The app was just there, and the only people who used it were those who bothered to research it.
GM needs to add tutorial buttons to their apps to easily teach people of their uses.
I’ve been trying to use the Shell app from the market place but couldn’t log in. I guess I don’t have to keep trying now.
All of the fuel brands have the exact same functionality in their smartphone app, which fails often because some stations don’t bother to get it to work. I know one Mobil by me has errored every time over 3 years.
The main issue in the car was it was clunky. First of all, it was slow even on the latest platforms, and if you didn’t remember to do everything and opened the door, you had to turn the car back on and wait until the whole system loaded. Then it stagnated; I think they wanted to charge the vendors way too much.
They should have integrated LBS to it: you drive up to a Shell station and it instantly pops up asking you if you want to fuel. Of course, that’s way too complex software for Detroit to figure out.
OEMs need to stick to building transportation devices and leave comms and human interface to tech companies. As Musk correctly describes, a car/truck is a smartphone on wheels. Apple could easily buy GM as an example.
Well it that happened I’d have to quit my job and never buy another GM car as I absolutely detest Apple.
Sent from iPhone
I don’t think this is GM’s decision at all. The system was bought from a vendor: it’s called Xevo Market from Lear. It’s the same as Stellantis’ Uconnect Market and Hyundai/Kia signed on but I guess they never deployed it.
Apparently last year, Xevo laid off half their staff, so it’s likely they’re quitting. Not surprising given how slow and how sparse merchant offers were. GM should have hired a real tech company, and Lear should stick to making seats.
Likely that Xevo had to layoff half their staff since there isn’t a market for their app. Apple and Google followed by Amazon own that space. Nothing GM has would entice anyone to use their app. This is just a replay of how VisiCalc for example was destroyed when Microsoft came out w Office.
That analogy is very applicable: a main issue was that this thing wasn’t integrated at all. What should have happened is if you used nav to Shell, it should pop up a box automatically asking you to pay. It should have highlighted vendors who bought into the app on the map.
Instead, the nav app came from one vendor, the store app came from another, and didn’t work together at all. Meanwhile Google can stick the same function in Google Maps and it will work a whole lot better.
The market app may come back in a new form once GM’s Ultifi system is deployed and much more friendlier to Developers. It seems to be much more interoperable, especially because more Google Apps are built in and the system is much more powerful.
Last thing I think of when I get in my car is what coupons I might get today. I use my car to drive and my phone/computer to shop. At least give a better/more responsive screen if you expect people to shop from the car.
They didn’t even offer marketplace here in canada
Gm should stop getting involved in everything else and stick to building vehicles. They can’t keep up with demand. Until I see vehicles in dealers to see and touch I will not buy another gm again. They are too expensive and and if I’m going to spend 50k or more I am not settling with what might be in the que for build and delivery status. I almost want to see them going bankrupt. The only thing is that if they do, the government will bail them out too big to fail. I have been a gm fan all my life but Ford and dodge are almost looking good right now.
Ford is experiencing the exact same supply issues as GM and they are also experimenting with the same in care features.
Every car manufacture has low supply and high prices right now and that’s not going to change until the chip supply really stabilizes.
Now about the infotainment apps/features…
Ford has been getting some odd ideas lately… Take a look at their most recent Infotainment patent: 20210133810
“a system that uses a vehicle’s cameras to detect billboards and pull them up on a car’s infotainment systems. “
It’s a nice feature now they take it away? I’m sure somewhere in the cost of my Stingray I paid for that!