iTunes tops 200 million downloads, Partners with Satellite Radio
Author: Syd JohnsonIt seems that Apple is in talks with Sirius Satellite Radio to
make their streaming broadcasts available on the iPod. This is
something that a lot of online music fans have been looking
forward to for some time. Satellite radio customers love the
music variety because they can go for days without hearing the
same songs on rotation. This is in stark contrast to commercial
radio stations, where you can hear the same song every couple of
hours and on multiple stations in the same market.
Many think this pairing is just a rumor since iPods are not
designed for this type of function and it would probably require
a much larger hard drive and a much larger iPod case to be able
to carry the streams.
Another functionality that would also require some tweaks is the
ability to record satellite stream directly onto the iPods. The
whole purpose of the iPod is the storage capacity and the
ability to make music portable.
Even if satellite broadcasts were available, if the storage
functionality is not included, customers could easily turn away
from it and back to streaming radio only.
Since iPods are in short supply right now because so many
customers are trying to get one, imagine what the market frenzy
would look like if you add radio transmission receivers onto it.
Both XM Satellite Radio and Sirius Satellite Radio with over 4
million subscribers have been looking into ways that they can
merge their popular streaming radio functionality with a host of
gadgets to give their customers more options and to expand their
subscription base.
The iPod seems like a natural fit. Rumors of a partnership
between the satellite radio companies and Apple computers have
been rampant after several telling signs by executives of both
companies at various computer industry shows.
Online tech guides and skeptics are critical, but hopeful, since
there is no clear mechanism right now to add the radio
transmission function onto an iPod and still maintain the same
compact look and feel of the iPod. In addition, it would take
some time to develop the product, test it and bring it to
market.
Then it would have to attract the attention of both Satellite
radio customers and serious iPod fans to prevent each party from
losing the market share they are hastily trying to capture.
There is some overlap between iPod customers and Satellite Radio
customers especially in the ability to adapt to new technology.
What is unclear is if streaming radio fans, and download happy
fans are part of some larger online music tribe that anyone can
tap with new gadgets.
About the author:
This article may be freely distributed as long as there's an
active link to http://www.rapidlingo.com Syd Johnson Editor
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