Ford Motor Co. plans to bring social networking, Web browsing and iPod-style thumb controls into 80 percent of its models by 2015 as automakers woo consumers with communications features.

A touch-command system will be available this year in the Lincoln MKX, Ford Edge and Ford Focus models, the company said. The My Ford Touch system to be unveiled at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas features thumb-wheel controls on the steering wheel, as well as an 8-inch touch screen in the dashboard, for audio, navigation and climate-control functions.

“It is a reason now to buy a Ford,” Chief Executive Officer Alan Mulally said in an interview. “It’s a new way of working and talking with your car.”

Ford is enhancing its three-year-old Sync communications offering as Kia Motors Corp. said this week that it’s introducing a similar system this year in its Sorento model. The Ford and Kia systems are both based on Microsoft Corp.’s in-car voice-activated communications technology.

Derrick Kuzak, Ford’s product development chief, told reporters on Jan. 4 that “we are intent on maintaining leadership in this kind of connectivity. We saw people becoming addicted to connectivity and we saw increased use of these devices inside the car and we connected the dots.”

Sync was critical to the purchase of a Ford model for 32 percent of buyers last year, he said. The system, a $395 option on some models, is on 70 percent of the vehicles Ford sells. My Ford Touch will be standard on high-end cars and trucks, while a basic My Ford system with a smaller, non-touch screen will be on base models, said Alan Hall, a company spokesman.

The automaker also is incorporating the Twitter social network’s Open Beak application into Sync and is adding Pandora and Stitcher Internet radio and MapQuest.com’s online mapping information. Ford developed its own Web browser, which can be operated only while the car is parked, Kuzak said.
To increase applications, the Dearborn, Michigan-based automaker is letting outside software developers design new functions for Sync.