Sirius Confirms iPod Satellite Talks 381
An anonymous reader writes "Remember those iPod Satellite rumors last December? Mel Karmazin, the CEO of Sirius Satellite Radio, announced at the 2005 Media Summit that he had discussions with Steve Jobs about the possibility of putting Sirius' technology in future iPods. Steve's response? Not interested."
Re:Huh? (Score:4, Informative)
Re:iTunes Says Moo (Score:5, Informative)
For reference, check out this article: Apple profit surges on iPod sales [bbc.co.uk]
Re:iTunes Says Moo (Score:2, Informative)
Seriously. I don't have a single track from ITMS (although I do have a $30 gift certificate waiting for there to be something I want in the ITMS...). I have mainly Bittorrented albums, along with a few ripped CDs.
MyFi complaints (Score:5, Informative)
Right before I graduated from college, I was working at a large consumer electronics store to pay the bills. As frequently happened, we were given the opportunity to purchase XM equipment directly from a manufacturer at ludicrously low prices. This sort of thing is common in certain sections of electronics retailers; car audio and home audio traditionally have a huge markup, and manufacturers offer direct purchase plans that end up being better than the normal employee discount, all in the hope that an employee will fall in love with the product and recommend it to customers.
This time, we were offered the XM MyFi for 6 months of service. That was it. We paid shipping on the player and prepaid six months of service. That meant $60 for a player that was retailing in the mid to high- $300s. Several guys jumped on it.
AND HATED THEM.
These things were wretched. I'm not sure if we got a crappy batch (although some personal online reviews at the time were similar to our experiences), but these things couldn't hold onto a signal if the fate of the earth depended on it.
One guy actually walked outside with his MyFi while it was hooked to a small set of portable speakers for purpose of demonstrating the new utter crappiness to the rest of us. He held it out from his body. The unit played fine. He held a small stack of about 15 papers above it. The signal died completely.
Most of us simply sold them on eBay. The profit was reasonable, but given the amount of problems, I was just glad I never purchased one.
Indirectly, it confirms what I'd already seen with my father's car satellite radio system. Terrestrial rebroadcast is great in some areas. In others, pulling into a gas station cuts out audio entirely.
iPods work damned well. The iTunes sync system is great, the interface is nearly as simple as it gets, and unless you have a peculiar niche desire for your player, it does everything most people want. Now imagine the same player randomly cutting out when you walk under trees by the sidewalk, or when you walk into the gym because rebroadcast isn't reaching the area you're in, or when you stick it in your pocket (if it behaves like some of our MyFi's). If and when Sirius or XM can demonstrate a 99% effective coverage system for a player that can't guarantee free view of the sky, then we'll talk.
Until then, Steve, don't pollute an otherwise great player.
Re:Sirius sucks (Score:3, Informative)
XM's Hugh Panero has already spoken to Steve Jobs [marketwatch.com] and nothing has come from that either.
The satellite providers would love to get involved with the iPod, but why would Apple want to break its strangle-hold on locking out any competitors to the iTunes Music Store?
Re:Sirius sucks (Score:3, Informative)
xm has 2 in geo-sync orbit.
grump
Re:Huh? (Score:4, Informative)
That said, I think they would definatly have to increase the size of the iPod (maybe double as thick what the lowest capacity iPod is) to make it work. It wouldn't be a tiny addition (like an FM radio might be). See my other post in this topic for my other thoughts.
Re:First things first (Score:3, Informative)
Apple doesn't include it because, as you note, it's not a compelling feature for everybody - the rest of us don't have to pay the $5-$10 it would cost, or worse, have to carry around larger iPods.
Yeah, but he's right quite a bit, too. (Score:4, Informative)
Here's another example: Ever since he killed the Newton, a small, vocal group of people have been screaming for an Apple PDA. Jobs refuses to make one. Said small, vocal group of people say he's crazy for ignoring such a huge market, and then look what happens: PDA sales have been falling for the last three years. [zdnet.com]
~Philly
Why stock analysts should stick to analyzing stock (Score:5, Informative)
This is why people who don't understand technology shouldn't speculate about it. Increased battery drain from an XM/Sirius tuner? A tuner would be 100% solid state, as opposed to the hard drive that currently has to be spun up to read MP3s. And what, exactly, would they need to add?
LO - Check
DSP - Check
Audio Amplifier - Check
User Interface - Check
Most of the main parts of a receiver are already existant in the current iPod. All they really need to add is a low noise RF amp, program the digital decoding method, and slap an antenna on that sucker. It takes a minimal amount of power to drive most of the circuitry -- the biggest power drain is the audio amp. If anything, the satellite radio enabled iPod would get better battery life when used as a reciever.
Re:Why stock analysts should stick to analyzing st (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Why stock analysts should stick to analyzing st (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Apple Lies re: song profit margins (Score:3, Informative)
Sure, I believe you.
The margin Apple makes on its songs is not merely the selling price minus the price paid to the record companies. When doing that kind of accounting, you have to take bandwidth, advertising, credit card processing fees, and paying the employees. That's basic accounting.
You can't say "Well, the licensing fee was $.50, and we're charging $99, so we've got a $.49 profit. Even though you're paying $.47 in overhead costs.
Put that in an annual report, at the SEC will rip you a new one. It's not a lie, it's Business and Accounting 101.