Mercedes-Benz mbrace, a new telematics platform that Mercedes-Benz USA (MBUSA) launched recently, is the first such system to have a companion mobile application. The app lets registered mbrace customers lock and unlock vehicle doors as well as locate their vehicle from within the vicinity of one mile. The app also lets owners contact their preferred Mercedes-Benz dealership or locate dealers in the U.S. by proximity. It provides dealer name, address, phone number and even pinpoints their location on a map. The click-to-call functionality allows for easy access to the mbrace Customer Response Center, Mercedes-Benz Customer Assistance Center and Mercedes-Benz Financial. Users must be active Mercedes-Benz mbrace subscribers to use the companion mobile application.

Editor’s Note: Headlightblog.com recently caught up with James Spahr, a UX Lead at Razorfish and pictured below, who has been working on the Mercedes-Benz USA (MBUSA) account since Razorfish was selected as the digital agency of record in January 2009. This past summer James worked on a mobile website for MBUSA as part of the agency’s work to support the 2010 E-Class launch. He was interviewed for Headlightblog.com by Kyle Outlaw, a regular Headlightblog.com contributor who is also a UX lead at Razorfish and one of the agency’s mobile subject matter experts.

I recently picked up the T-mobile G1 running the Android OS and for the past few weeks have been comparing it side-by-side with a jail-broken iPhone still on AT&T. There are a lot of great applications for Android that have been created so far — such as Ecorio (profiled in this blog), Google Voice (I now have all phones, landline and mobile, synced to one number), and Wikitude, which I have to admit was the real driver behind this purchase.

Full-line automakers such as Toyota Motor Corp., General Motors Corp. and Ford Motor Co., possessing some of the largest marketing budgets in the world, are not new to emerging media. They often spend heavily in all media, including online, video and mobile. According to Advertising Age’s 100 Leading National Advertisers Spending Report 2007, the automotive sector led all categories in advertising spending, topping the charts at $19.80B last year. Automakers’ large budgets and continuous need for innovation in marketing give them both the means and the motivation to test and push new channels and tactics more aggressively than other verticals.