I could see this working in the same way the U2 iPod works. It would be a seperate product that most people wouldn't choose to buy but it would be there for those who do.

I doubt we'll ever see any kind of radio become a standard feature on ALL iPods, but it could be a feature on some for sure.

Watch Jobs change his tune about people wanting to own their music once Apple starts its own proprietary overpriced radio service.

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RealityCheck wrote:
Watch Jobs change his tune about people wanting to own their music once Apple starts its own proprietary overpriced radio service.

Uhm, then why would they be talking to Sirius?

Let's look at few known comments here... Jobs has said the iPod is mainly about music. One reason, presumably, for the iPod not to feature FM tuning has been the quality. I haven't used a small FM walkman for 15 years, so perhaps this has improved.

From the Apple standpoint, the who does the radio integration really benefit? Apple doesn't really need the radio to sell more iPods, but several million iPods with radio capabilities could be huge to Sirius. All of a sudden, you have potential customers.

Other thoughts - Apple isn't going to incorporate a feature into the iPod that won't be utilized by the majority of users. How many customers would buy an iPod, then expect the radio service to be free? Imagine if they were then todl, "well, you have to pay for the radio service." Ouch! Not really the best way to earn customers. Also, imagine other competitors saying "With a Creative Nomad, the radio is free!" Customers aren't smart enough to weigh the benefits of broadcast verses satelite radio.

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Anonymous wrote:
From the Apple standpoint, the who does the radio integration really benefit? Apple doesn't really need the radio to sell more iPods, but several million iPods with radio capabilities could be huge to Sirius. All of a sudden, you have potential customers.

Other thoughts - Apple isn't going to incorporate a feature into the iPod that won't be utilized by the majority of users. How many customers would buy an iPod, then expect the radio service to be free?

Take both of those facts and put them together...

To me that says a good idea is for Sirius to sell some sort of radio-iPod to their subscribers. Just like you have HP selling iPods, they could have Sirius selling a different kind of iPod too.

That way the people who are buying them already pay for Sirius and understand how that works, and Apple isn't confusing their main customers because this item isn't in regular stores.

Apple's hope is that podcasting, and the iTunes integration, will make the whole real-time satellite radio integration obsolete. Why would it be necessary when you can download podcasts of the same radio shows? That would be much more beneficial for Apple, cheaper for the product itself (there's no need for chip integration, current product will work fine) and it leaves Apple independent (no long time dependency on a vendor, that may or may not renegotiate the deal when current contract expires and if not happy, will pull the plug. Apple will look bad, because their name is on the hardware..... Just my thought, opinion

First, Apple is selling 5 Million+ ipods a quarter or 20 MILLION a year so they don't really have to mess with that success yet - when sales start to taper off (int'l has just begun to grow!) then Apple can consider it.

By then, the chip should be small enough and cheaper to put one in an ipod. Current XM ones are $349 - not a lot of people will pay for an ipod + $350 for satellite radio - $100 extra maybe.

They'd also have to be willing to share some revenue with Apple.

No point in Apple launching a radio service. You'd have to launch a billion dollars worth of satellites and then a service to compete - no point when XM & Sirius are just begging for Apple to join them.

The HD radio might be a faster possibility as an ipod add-on. Not sure about antenna requirements but since it's "free," that's easier and that beats an old FM tuner anyday.

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RealityCheck wrote:
Watch Jobs change his tune about people wanting to own their music once Apple starts its own proprietary overpriced radio service.

God this has to be the worst post you've ever made. it's like you didnt even read the headline. although even if you did read the headline you know that apple is talking to SIRIUS, not THEMSELVES.

Oh yeah, getting unlimited music anywhere in the United States at any time at full CD quality...that's not worth $12 a month.

"Watch Jobs change his tune about people wanting to own their music once Apple starts its own proprietary overpriced radio service."

Do you realize that even if that happened, people could still buy songs normally from the iTMS?

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Guest wrote:
Other thoughts - Apple isn't going to incorporate a feature into the iPod that won't be utilized by the majority of users. How many customers would buy an iPod, then expect the radio service to be free? Imagine if they were then todl, "well, you have to pay for the radio service." Ouch! Not really the best way to earn customers. Also, imagine other competitors saying "With a Creative Nomad, the radio is free!" Customers aren't smart enough to weigh the benefits of broadcast verses satelite radio.

You underestimate people. Those who buy Sirius (as I have) or XM know what they're getting. It's not cheap--about $300 for my car radio plus about $12.95/month, so people generally think about this quite a bit before buying.

I was going to add that there were few small, easily portable satellite radios, but check this one out:

http://www.xactcommunication.com/Sirius-Satellite-Radio-7/Rego-84.html

It says that it is an MP3 player, but doesn't say how one gets the MP3s into the radio/player.

Xact's other "small" Sirius receiver, the XTR1

http://www.xactcommunication.com/Sirius-Satellite-Radio-7/XTR1-SIRIUS-Satellite-Plug-and-Play-Receiver-12.html

requires external power and antenna. To use it "portable," you have to buy a "Power Pod," which is considerably larger than the receiver.

http://www.xactcommunication.com/Sirius-Satellite-Radio-7/XS028-Sirius-Satellite-Radio-Power-Pod-Portable-Battery-Pack-18.html

I wrote to Xact about their new "MP3 player" + Sirius receiver. The person who replied didn't know if one could load MP3s from a computer, but said that one could record up to 4 hours of Sirius programming.