[adav]

The latest iteration is pretty much spot on. Everybody unfairly discredited the first version - the technology hadn't matured. Much like the iPhone 2G (dismissed by the majority of non-techies)! However, not everyone can afford a brand new BMW, whereas pretty much everyone I know has an iPhone/Android, so their opinion was never re-evaluated.

The latest iteration is virtually perfected. Rocker buttons on top, and with a known number of clicks I can control 80% of all the main functions without taking my eyes off of the road at all. For the other 20%, it takes a quick glance to see the state of the screen and then I know "okay, now just two clicks down and I'm there".

The upcoming version (currently on the only the latest model to be released) has a small circular touchpad on-top of the wheel so you can draw letters without having to twist the knob. Useful for entering Postcodes into Nav, for instance.

I recall that both Audi and Mercedes have since copied the iDrive paradigm.