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No Satellite iPod...

All the portable satellite radios I have seen are significantly bigger than the iPod and they are just radios. Imagine how big the iPod would have to be to incorporate both. There are also significant reception and power issues to be overcome. It may be something worth pursuing in a couple years but right now it would be ridiculous to try and cram all that into an iPod. No one wants to carry around an iBrick. I say add an AM/FM radio with HD compatibility for North America and DAB for Europe. This would be far easier and cheaper to implement.
 
Doctor Q said:
Couldn't a third-party product provide the receiver and iPod interface? A healthy competition among other companies to sell you this add-on capability might produce some innovative designs, without Apple's involvement at all.
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I couldn't agree more. It doesn't need to be integrated, but could be a great add on. You could also choose between Sirius and XM, and the iPod aftermarket is already well-established.
 
I'd love to see it happen with a 3rd party piece. I'm going to subscribe to Sirius in December right before Stern goes over to them. If I could incorperate the hardware w/ my iPod, all the better.
 
They're right . . .

The iPod doesn't need Satellite, but it sure would be cool! And by saying that it doesn't mean they won't do it.
 
PlaceofDis said:
not for me,... it works well as a MP3 player, dont let it become too bloated
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Just because it's "not for you" doesn't mean it wouldn't be great for hundreds of thousands of others. And what is this "too bloated" thing? The ipod would look just like it does not except it would play sat. radio. How does giving it another thing to do make it "bloated"? Describe "bloated"... that descriptions beats everything I've read. People could've said, don't give it Photo capabillities... or we don't want games. Hey don't listen to the radio if you don't want to. There would be two models anyway... the type without and ones with the service. Choice is not a bad thing... EVER.
 
I would also much rather have DAB instead of XM or FM on the iPod if they should include some form of radio.
 
JGowan said:
Just because it's "not for you" doesn't mean it wouldn't be great for hundreds of thousands of others. And what is this "too bloated" thing? The ipod would look just like it does not except it would play sat. radio. How does giving it another thing to do make it "bloated"? Describe "bloated"... that descriptions beats everything I've read. People could've said, don't give it Photo capabillities... or we don't want games. Hey don't listen to the radio if you don't want to. There would be two models anyway... the type without and ones with the service. Choice is not a bad thing... EVER.
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Bloated = physically larger. HTH.
 
patseguin said:
What is a "podcast"?
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http://ipodder.org/

It's a method of subscribing to feeds, or channels, using a light client tool. These feeds are periodically checked for new episodes, or MP3 files. They are automagically downloaded adn added to your iPod. I use it daily to listen to really interesting shows, such as The Daily Source Code, Insomnia Radio, and Science @ NASA. It's kinda like a TiVo for radio shows.
 
The ipod can hold ...a LOT of songs.
with all of that, i usually wouldnt have time to listen to my radio, much less wnough time to pay a monthly fee.

and with the monthly fee part comes the fact that if people don't buy the subscription, the R&D is wasted. yes, they could make another Pod, but that woud cost even more money considering the cost of production adn the fact that service would only be availabe to north americans.
 
I think that this is a very good move for Apple.

2 Reasons:

1: I have an account with Edward Jones Investments. In December 2004, they rated Sirus Stock at a "hold" status--not but, not sell. In the February edition the monthly brochure that comes out, Edward Jones decided not to put "Sirus" in their model stock portfolio and encouraged investors to sell stock in that company. They believe that this business is highly overhyped and will not come close to meeting the "extreme expectations" it has. If Apple incorporates satellite radio and Sirus begins to fail, it will look bad on Apple's part and will seen as a "mistake"--something Apple hates. It was a good long term decision.

2: With iPod's becoming more easily intergrated with different car companies, radio (even satellite services) will eventually loose their appeal. If people have thousands of songs of their own personal taste at their disposal in their car, why search the radio?

just my thoughts...
 
BornAgainMac said:
It really just can be an accessory today with existing iPods just like other third-party products.
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Bingo! I totally agree, keep the iPod as simle as possible but allow for (and make it easy for 3rd party producers to make) ALL kinds of accessories, like radio (satellite, FM/AM, DAB or whatever), snap on camera (still and video) and whatever's out there already... I wouldn't buy any of them (or a multi function iPod), but I can see there would be kind of a market for it...
 
You guys who are so stuck on the notion that the iPod is "an MP3 player" so why would we want to do XYZ (like playing satellite radio) on it make me laugh.

It's a MUSIC player at the very least, and a MEDIA player (see: iPod photo), and a storage device, and a way to carry contacts, calendar, etc.

I can't imagine too many reasons to upgrade my iPod from what I currently have. My current player is larger than my entire music collection by a factor of 4. And even if I filled it, so what? Would it really make sense to buy a newer one for an incremental increase in storage? Or a minor change to the ui? When it's working just fine? Come on guys.

HOWEVER, add Sirius - or even good ole AM/FM - and keep the form factor the same and make it easy to use (no problemo for Steve's boys)...THEN you'll have something. Not only a whole new *real* reason to upgrade but recurring revenue as well. Even if you didn't spend a dime at the iTunes store Apple would get a cut of the monthly fee paid for the satellite service.

If this was anything other than an engineering issue (which I'm fairly certain it was) i.e. tough to fit everything into the form factor that we all love, I'd be shocked.

When the satellite receiver can be shrunk down to a single IC the size of a dime and satellite antenna's can be embedded in ear pods, THEN we'll see this happen.

And btw satellite radio won't fail. The stocks may be insanely overvalued from any rational investment criteria point of view (which they are) but one has nothing to do with the other. You who discount it have not tried it. Here's why radio (in any form) matters: new music.

TM
 
Good. Apple doesn't need to pack on a bunch of features that aren't totally necessary in order to convince people to buy an iPod. The iPod is all about digital music, not radio or anything else.
 
This is all about sales folks not functionality.

Apples would gain little for the moment from adding satellite radio to the ipod and would likely hurt online music sales from their store.

For the moment Apple has to walk a tight line of providing just enough to attract new sales and still keeping control like they are of the industry. Adding in satellite radio now is something that is too early for Apple to consider doing. They're generating record sales now and need to be in control of those sales. Such an addition would also serve to be beneficial more for Sirus than for Apple and being beneficial in such a manner is not something Apple is known for or anyone else who is successful on this scale.

Once this market seems to hit critical mass we might see Apple add such a feature to access this or a similar service but for now, I don't see it happening. Doing so would give Apple then at that time a *huge* userbase to get upgrade sales. Apple hasn't offerred anything more than larger hd's and the photo features as of yet to really encourage upgrade sales.
 
jdurston said:
If people want satellite radio it would be neat if a 3rd party made an adaptor.
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This seems a more reasonable way to go.

I know of a few folks who are waiting to purchase a 40GB version when it is the same size as the 20GB version. To them, capacity and size are very important.

At this time, adding satilite radio feature will increase the iPod's size considerably. This would be a complete turnoff for those who want a high capacity small sized player. Plus I would imagine that it will decrease the battery life somewhat as well.

Apple is known for introducing devices that simply work and are reliable. Satilite radio for the masses is not perfected at this stage of the game and is more of a gimick. Granted this will change as the technology improves, but for now it is better to wait.

Sushi
 
Well great that they are not putting at satellite radio in the iPod. I think personally it's completely superfluous.

I think that if satellite radio offer only better quality and no commercials, then it's a small step up in improvement over the existing radio technologies. Improvement = no future, in a world where people are moving away from radio and towards personal audio players (the facilitator of the ultimate radio experience, ie no commercials, superb quality, music that only you choose to hear)

Apple is too innovative to incorporate such an un-innovative feature into their product.
 
Good I'm glad, that's why I got an iPod: so I can pick what I want to listen to when I want listen to it. Instead of radio telling me what I should like by playing the same 6 songs over and over again all day! Even if it is satelite and you get "so many more choices" just give it some time and we'll be back in the old Nickelback, Destiny's Child, Good Charlotte, Linkin Park, Avril Lavigne groove. Keep in mind that Clear Channel owns a large stake in one of the two Satelite Radio companies (Sirius or XM). In conclusion if I wanted to be brainwashed I'd buy an AM/FM radio and tune into Clear Channel instead of using my iPod.
 
I think this would work better if they could make it into some sort of add on that goes into the back, so the people who want it can use it, and the people who don't still have their iPod's.
 
While my stock portfolio would love to see Sirius and Apple work together, a satellite iPod doesn't seem like that great of an idea.

What I would love to see though, is a iPod-like boombox with AM/FM. Not one of those speakers where you plug the iPod in, but an acutal boombox with iPod functionality and controls.
 
All though XM would be cool I don't think it would fly.

1) It costs monthly. Something I personally wouldn't pay for.

2) It would mostly just consist of the US. While the iPod market is global.

I would like to see an FM tuner built in though. These are so small now they could fit them in without losing to much in the slender form factor. And I do like listening to my favorite music on it whenever I want, but sometimes I want to hear something different. All of my favorite music is the ones I heard on the radio or a band I went to from club listings broadcasted on the radio.
 
I believe it's justifible for the iPod to not include sat. radio features because:
-iPods are sold internationally and sat. radiko iPod would be of no use to eg. Australians or other non-US users-I believe XM/Sirius only has US/Europe coverage.
-Would add bulk to the iPod and be more expensive

Also, I don't know if Apple has dealed with Viacom in the past (as ironically, Sirius'sMel Karmazin is also the President and Chief
Operating Officer of Viacom).

I wonder if Sirius rules out a sat. ipod, then XM may still have other ideas on the sat. ipod (unless Jobs rules out XM as well).
 
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