Motorola launches a radio service over mobile phone |
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Wed, 04 Jan 2006 10:15
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NEW YORK: Mobile phone maker Motorola Inc. announced its iRadio, a music radio service for cell phones that also plays over car and home stereos.
Motorola iRadio, with some 435 channels, is to be offered by wireless service providers to their subscribers for prices in the range of $7 and $10 a month, the company announced. The service puts the company in direct competition with such service providers like XM Satellite Radio Holdings and Sirius Satellite Radio, which sell music subscriptions for car and home radios. Sirius has an arrangement with Sprint to offer music to phone users.
Motorola said the service will run on its Rokr E2 music cell phone, which, unlike the first Rokr phone, will not include Apple Computer's popular iTunes music software. The phone has capacity for 70 hours of music. Other cell phones can be adapted to receive the service, the company said.
The iRadio service is Motorola's first offer in the consumer services segment. The company hopes that most of the music content will be loaded on to the phones from the Internet using a personal computer. As such, there will be little or no interference with any cellular network.
Analysts say the company derives two advantages with the service -- one it can sell more phones and related accessories, and two and more importantly, the service can be a new business model for the phone company with the phone as the core. The company has recently developed a Bluetooth device as an interface for the phone and a musical device.
Motorola has signed a licensing agreement with Universal Music recently and a similar deal with Warner Music Group is on the cards. Some of the titles to be featured in iRadio will be Heavy Metal, Rockin' Cowboys and Angry Women.
Motorola's vice president and general manager, Digital Media Services, Mike Gaumond said the iRadio will be a revolution in digital radio -- offering more choice, higher audio quality than satellite radio, and features that allow listeners to identify and purchase the music they like.
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