Comments on: Streaming Radio on Phones… why?

By: Ed Morando

Ed Morando — Thu, 22 Jun 2006 18:09:21 +0000

I listen to streaming radio on my T-Mobil smartphone all the time. I have an unlimited internet package in my plan. I run three miles every day and listen to mutiple genres located at the http://www.hepmusic.com streaming internet radio. I don’t have to pay for any music downloads and I can save up to five playlists.

By: Jim

Jim — Thu, 07 Apr 2005 00:21:22 +0000

Hmmm, can you say XM Cell phone? Seems to work…add in WiFi and the cost per minute delivered has to be MUCH cheaper than satellite, no?

By: Ingmar

Ingmar — Wed, 06 Apr 2005 07:33:34 +0000

So, Vodafone offers so called “UMTS – Spezial Pakete”, which range from 20 EUR – 95 EUR, depending on the minutes you want to have included for telephony. With such a “UMTS-Special-Package” you are allowed to watch 2 hours mobile TV per month. If you watch more than these 2 hours you will be charged 3 EUR for every further hour. This is quite a lot money I think, and yes: at these prices they will get problems bringing it to the masses. But hey, last weekend, when the pope died, that had user-high-records on the mobile-TV-news channels: about 20.000 on the whole weekend. So, I think there´s a market.

By: Om Malik

Om Malik — Tue, 05 Apr 2005 20:58:28 +0000

Sure it is marvelous – as long as you are willing to pay between $20 to $30 a month extra for those services. at those price points its not easy to get mass adoption. I would love to know how many dollars is Vodafone charging for TV on its german network!

By: Ingmar

Ingmar — Tue, 05 Apr 2005 20:48:51 +0000

Vodafone germany just launched 13 new mobile TV channels on it´s Vodafone Live! portal, and it´s a real success, though it´s quite expensive. The quality is marveless, and having live soccer games on the weekends is a plaesure. I think if streaming (and with streaming 3G) will be a success or not will be a question of the price: will there be flatrates in Europe? Then it might get to a tipping point. Streaming radio on a mobile phone…why not?!

By: Om Malik

Om Malik — Tue, 05 Apr 2005 16:51:59 +0000

I agree – i think the market is in niches and that’s where people should be focusing and dumb ideas like mspot won’t work – just my two cents

By: Carlo Longino

Carlo Longino — Tue, 05 Apr 2005 15:55:32 +0000

I think there are some real possibilities for radio streamed to mobiles, but it certainly isn't a platform that will succeed just because it's a novelty. Pushing out Clear Channel-esque corporate crap-rock stations won't work. But for Web-only stations, like the great WOXY.com, it will work. Live sports coverage also has a lot of potential, be it MLB on MobiTV, or streaming coverage of test cricket to Indian ex-pats, or English football. But what's important to remember is that the mobile platform offers radio much more than just an audio stream; there's a lot of functionality and interactivity that can be added in. Services that do so will be the ones that make money.