If they are smart they won't produce another portable. Look at Slacker, look at TeleNAV; they're all getting out of the hardware business and concentrating on what it is they do best. Everything is going to the iphone and BB's.
Which must be why the Slacker Blackberry app has over a million downloads, as well as the Pandora app. EDIT: 4 million since the blackberry app was released, and 35 percent of new registrants are Blackberry owners. I'd say (and a little research goes a long way) that the exact opposite is true.
If they are smart they won't produce another portable. Look at Slacker, look at TeleNAV; they're all getting out of the hardware business and concentrating on what it is they do best. Everything is going to the iphone and BB's.
Let's talk about what 'qualifies' a 'listener'. Is this someone who installed the app? Is it someone who actually listens to the service? If it's the latter, how often are they listening? more than 20 hours a week?
What you quoted has a lot of holes and more questions than answers. I installed Pandora on my cell phone and used it all of twice. Does that mean Pandora has a 'new subscriber' and 'subscriber growth' due to that use even though I'll never use it again?
I imagine Subscriber in this case means paid.
Slacker shouldn't have produced a portable in the first place. It was a really expensive way to go about things for a small company.
with iHeartRadio, which is a nice app I concede, but still, Clear Channel?)
I live in Clearchannel hell. I don't understand this either but is it just music content or does it also include talk feeds? If it has talk, it's possible some station is sending out a really popular show each day like Rush, Hannity, etc. I don't listen to any of those guys, but millions of people do.
It does have talk and it does have Rush, Hannity and all those, as well as Jim Rome. So that's probably where they get the numbers from. I personally listen to KFI (for Leo Laporte) and WLW on occasion so I use it myself. Still surprising that it's beating everything else.
I don't see another portable happening. New PNP's with the complete service, and working on getting the OEM market to get both services at once, or barring that, merging the two spectrums. I do see XM bringing their app and 'Skydock capabilities' to other devices like Windows Mobile, BB, etc. Those who still want a PNP, which will be the closest thing to a portable, will still have it. Those who want XM in their car will still have it. Those who want portability will find it on their smart phone.
I don't see any complete spectrum radios happening. The Mirge was it. It sold like shit and I doubt they are interested in spending the extra money and effort on that. The FCC condition has been satisfied. Development closed.
Long term I see them moving OEM to all XM or all Sirius. This will allow them 10-15 years from now to plan to mothball the other service and expand the chosen ones bandwidth.
A satrad sub is still more economical than any cellphone data plan.
Unlike DAB and yourself, I think there are enough portable users to warrent some attention. Like I said earlier, just make the SL2 and XMP3 radios function as advertised.
The Satellite Radios are better about battery life than a cell phone continuously on data as well. I don't see any phones that can do 8 hours of continuous data.
That's inaccurate. The iPhone 3GS can do 9 hours on Wifi, 5 on 3G.
Just for giggles I looked up Blackberry and it says 38 hours of "Music playback time"
Look at actual reviews on what can be done and it's much less. Also, any extreme numbers assume perfect signal. Anyone who's ever had AT&T realizes that the phone still works at (and is often at) half signal but the battery power does drain at a higher rate.
I don't doubt it for a second, but if, like me, you listen in a wifi area (my house), 99 percent of the time, the battery life isn't going to be greatly affected if you listen for an hour or so.
10 years ago most people wouldn't have dreamed of ever needing a wireless phone much less owning one, now they're ubiquitous.
I do think if XM is smart, they will phase out their equipment
turning to streaming over internet and data lines.
As I assure they will, and have already begun with the Skydock and iPhone app.
I haven't seen a XM alacarte option. Why wasn't there a requirement for XM?
We shouldn't have to nudge anyone. We offer solutions for both services, Coke or Pepsi. If SiriusXM doesn't want us to sell for one service or the other, they should stop allowing activations on the one they don't care about. Of course, they should also buy back our left-over radio stock if they intend to do that.
I just don't see that happening however. They have a choice really. They can either make money using the satellites, which are already up there (the big expensive cost) or they can have them floating around in the sky. Makes more sense to make money.
Also don't forget they're not merged in Canada either.
If they keep waiting, they will have more potential for those pissed off customers to be distracted by a multitude of other options that aren't Satellite Radio instead of buying new hardware and switching services.
I have no idea, maybe as long as there was at least one service of the two offering it that satisifed the FCC's requirement. Why do it for both if it isn't really required.
It will become clear over time what their ultimate plan is.
Also where do you get that they aren't going to use their sats, they have many, many years of being required to do a dual service, but at some point when sats start nearing the end of their life cycles a decision will be made.
[/QUOTE]If they keep waiting, they will have more potential for those pissed off customers to be distracted by a multitude of other options that aren't Satellite Radio instead of buying new hardware and switching services.
My point was that they should make the decision now instead of waiting and that would cause a shift of customers ahead of the end of the life cycle. The phrase 'sh** or get off the pot' comes to mind. They can't disband the network tomorrow, but they could put the writing on the wall in permanent ink.
You and I agree 100% on this, I think they should make their plan known. However, I don't think the FCC will allow them to pull the plug on one service over the other one because of their agreement.
I have no idea, but if this is true I think it is clear which network they plan to move too ultimately.
To me though I think you just quit activating and selling equipment for one network and this by itself will force users to go with the network you want them too. Then you only have those few that will hold on to equipment until hell freezes over to deal with. Who knows they may do this, but feel it is a bit soon to take this action. Either way they go about it start it now or wait till later there will be those subscribers pissed off.