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:iTunes Says Moo (Score:2, Interesting)
Huh? (Score:4, Interesting)
Why bother? (Score:5, Interesting)
Sirius sucks (Score:2, Interesting)
The only thing Sirius has going for it is Howard Stern, who won't be on for a few years yet. They had better launch a decent satellite first, or all he'll talk about for the length of his contract is how much Sirius sucks.
First things first (Score:1, Interesting)
What I'd prefer anyway is PodCasting via iTunes (Score:4, Interesting)
Apple would do well to look at PodCasting and figure out how to bring large name radio broadcasts such as this (or say NPR's This American Life) to the iPod.
As a Sirius subscriber, what I REALLY want is... (Score:3, Interesting)
Not Suprised (Score:5, Interesting)
I'm not saying it's not a good idea, but I think it is definatly too early. It will be a while before we see such a thing. I don't see how it could happen right now. Just doesn't seem to make sense.
Jobs = Smart Man (Score:3, Interesting)
2.) the size of the unit would be really big to accomidate the extra electronics and most importantly the much larger battery.
I'm sure Jobs knows, like we all do, that eventually the ipod will have to go there. But for now he can reap the design benefits of the smaller battery and the revenue stream of itunes for a year or two until miniturization runs its course.
Re:MyFi complaints (Score:5, Interesting)
I disagree with your statements, though.
The Mini was the fastest-selling product in Apple's history. While you (and I) may disagree with the price/capacity point, it's obvious that a lot of consumers did not. I learned long ago that in most cases, Apple knows what people want far better than I.
The U2 edition is a limited edition. The $50 does get you a different case, but it also gets you a credit toward the U2 uber-Box set on iTunes. I've never even seen one in a store (although I guess Apple stores probably have one). It seems more like the kind of thing that a U2 fan would actively seek out. It's there, it's $50 more, you're welcome to buy it if you want.
The iPod photo is an asinine product, IMHO, but see above. Apple usually knows people better than I do. I could see buying the $599 model to get the 60GB drive, though.
Apple probably won't do a $199 shuffle. What they will do is the same thing they've been doing with the iPod since day one: Same price, bigger capacity. The $99 price point would get you 1GB, the $149, 2GB. Oh, yeah, and the iPod mini would probably bump to 6 or 8GB as hard drive capacity marches right along. We won't even get into the fact that the mini has many things consumers want (screen, colors, etc.) Again, see above: Apple knows what people want better than I do.
Re:First things first (Score:3, Interesting)
1) My gym has TVs in front of treadmills with FM broadcast of the audio portion. I'd like to run while I watch. Also, listening to NPR while I walk across campus wouldn't be bad from time to time.
2) While I don't need or use it, using mp3 players as audio recorders for lectures, concerts, note taking is an extremely popular feature.
And, yeah, the kids like their clear channel crap and recording the same from radio and friend's CDs. And while these uses may be too pedestrian for you, it doesn't mean there aren't better ones, and that all of them would sell more ipods and bring them in line with what a personal media device ought to do.
Re:Why bother? (Score:3, Interesting)
Now, for those of us who don't have high-speed internet access (due to availability reasons, at least on my part), having what really amounts to an unlimited amount of music/talk/sports/etc. available at the touch of a button is well worth the $10 or less per month XM costs me.
Apple Lies re: song profit margins (Score:1, Interesting)
200 million songs? Apple likely raked in a cool 80 mill...
Now, if you take into account the oodles of cash they're dumping into iTMS marketing and iPod marketing (who knows which wallet the advertising dollars are coming from ; if they're using iTMS revenue to fund iPod marketing, then, sure).. but the margin in and of itself is -not- slim...
Re:iPod Satellite Radio (Score:3, Interesting)
Satellite radio has limited appeal. I don't know many people that are excited about the idea of radio you have to pay for, commercials or not. Digital Radio (Digital FM & AM) will offer CD quality broadcasts in the near future effectively killing the satellite Radio market.
Now I'm just dependant on friends to introduce me to new music. I think they have better taste then the DJ's and what the big labels want to shove down my though any way.
The point of satellite radio is not it's quality. At least, that's what I've been led to believe. The point of sat radio is that the spectrum is so broad that they can carry many more different channels than are commercially viable in the AM/FM market. One of the biggest pushes of sat radio is the variety of choices now available; you only have to listen to Clear Channel crap if you want to, whereas AM/FM it's harder to find a station that's not CC.
That said, I don't have sat. radio either. But if I were more interested in music I would; it's becoming the refuge of "not mainstream" music genres.
Bad, bad move... (Score:2, Interesting)
Integrating Satelite radio a bad idea. (Score:3, Interesting)
Why don't you stop thinking locally and think globally? The reason why Apple is doing so well is precisely because they are thinking globally. Consider that there is no "Japanese" version or "Chinese" version of OS X but rather OS X supports strong localization support.
Even if I was living in the US, why would I care about satellite radio when I don't even listen to regular radio?
Leave it to companies like MSFT and their partners to create different products for different markets.
Re:Sirius sucks (Score:2, Interesting)
Because it's not really stupid.
Thanks to those elliptical orbits, Sirius usually has a satellite visible at a higher angle in the sky than XM. That means better reception and less need for ground repeaters in light urban areas.
It also means you're more likely to be able to see two satellites at once, which is how the buffering works.
Ever drive under a bridge while listening to Sirius and notice the music not stop? That's because one satellite is on a 4 second delay, so your tuner fills its buffer with one stream and plays the other. If the signal is interrupted, you can still listen to the buffered data until you reacquire the signal. But with satellites at fixed lower angles, you're more likely to lose the signal from one of them, making buffering impossible.
Re:iTMS profit is low for now (Score:1, Interesting)
Really most of the money is going of course to the fucking RIAA. How much work they put into "publishing" this is an entire different question.
What I would find interesting is if Steve opens a publishing house for independent artists that will apear only on iTMS.
Re:First things first (Score:3, Interesting)
1. A user-replaceable battery. After all, if digital still camera manufacturers can offer user-replaceable NiMH and Li-Ion batteries....
2. A built-in tuner for local FM and AM stations. There are people out there that want to listen to local radio stations on long walks (like me every morning!) in addition to listening to music.
Re:iTunes Says Moo (Score:2, Interesting)
I'm glad Apple concentrated on making the iPod user experience so bulletproof, even at the expense of gee-whiz features.
I also think that Apple didn't want to back the wrong horse, and it's not clear which sat radio company is going to buy the other one...