I agree they need to figure out a way to get the problems with the SL2 fixed, but the question is with them not having the money will they?
I think the bigger focus is to turn a profit at any cost. SL2's subscriber base is high as the only portable unit, but still low compared to OEM and PNP subscribed units. I've no idea if Zing (now part of Dell) is really all that interested in dealing with Sirius anymore either.
Maybe we'll see cool things if/when SiriusXM turns a profit. I hope so, but I also hope we don't see a massive spending on crap just because they made some money.
There are rumors that they may, but I would not hold my breath. I don't see making it smaller or having alacarte being that important. In fact alacarte hasn't that pretty much been a flop or maybe a better description would be a joke?
Agreed, which was basically my point. Alacarte and smaller unit is really no reason to invest the money to refresh the unit.
Alacarte in concept is a good idea. Alacarte as a Sirius offering ha been a flop. I get asked about it, but rarely. I remind customers that, for the most part, it makes little sense. With the Starmate 5 and the (yet released) Stratus 6 being the only units capable of supporting it, it's a non-starter for hardware support too.
Pioneer still going strong with the XMp3, you'd think it would be Pioneer's responsibility to fix the issues with the XMp3, but that is not how XM's agreement was put into place I am sure. Back when that agreement was done XM had a pretty good R&D departement themselves.
I think you're right. I didn't bother to look but I wouldn't be surprised to see that XM provided the engineering sample and FCC testing data themselves, much like they've done with other units like the Inno/Helix. Pioneer's merely a vendor with their name on the product and likely had little to do with the creation of the device.
I think if this doesn't come to pass it is going to be pretty telling about what Sirius XM is doing here. I am not sure at this late state it matters either, because I think for those that really wanted MLB they already have XM. But clearly if they don't get MLB in their BOXM package and continue to push out XM equipment then they plan to slowly through a natural process have people move to the XM network.
It will only move people who want MLB bad enough to justify subscribing to XM. I think you'll find that's probably a narrow subset of the people who would subscribe to Best of XM if it had MLB. It's another ballgame when you have to buy new hardware.
As it goes, we're still in business and while we offer XM hardware, we're more known for Sirius. People aren't going to ditch their Sirius units for XM units unless they have a really compelling reason to do so. I spend much of my time for TSS repairing Sirius radios that are 4 years old because people don't want to get rid of them.
You can bet they have a long term plan in place.
Planning would be a first. I do kind of wonder if this company has a modified Twister spinner and decide how to operate day to day based on that.
The only kink in that was them putting up the GEOsynchronous sat, but I think that was already in the works and contracted so they just went with it.
I think you mean Geostationary. All of the satellites are geosynchronous because they have a 24 hour cycle. I do agree that the geostationary sat was already in motion before the merger and it made sense to just roll with it instead of leaving it on the ground. From what we've seen it's improved the Sirius service for the better.
If they could find a way to make use of the other Sirius sat that is now decommissioned for use on the XM network, they may have two services with very similar coverage options in this country. It could potentially improve things for northern US and Canadian customers without severely impacting the existing customer base.
They could make this quite interesting by simply offering Stern on one service and not the other, or putting him on XM and charging for Best of XM on Sirius, etc. I'm not so sure that's a wise idea (because it could just piss off a ton of customers and they'd leave instead), but I think we agree that there is a 'make money' slant on this business and it's at the expense of existing customers. The music licensing fee is definitely indicative of that.