Really? iPod owners want FM tuners?
According to the results of a recent web poll survey of 25,000 respondents, 43 percent of iPod owners want the next model to include an FM tuner. And who conducted this survey? Jacobs Media, “the largest Rock radio consulting firm in America” who also “created the Classic Rock format, and works with Alternative, Active Rock, and Triple A formatted stations.”
Whoa! A company that provides research and consulting services to major radio broadcasting companies found that iPod owners want to have built-in radio capability! So maybe instead of headlining the results “iPod Owners Want FM Tuners,” they should have written “FM stations want iPods to have FM tuners so they won’t keep losing listeners.”
Their findings note that “Of course, FM radios are available in Microsoft Zune’s and SanDisk players, for example, but they are not built into Apple branded products, such as Nano, Shuffle, or video iPods.”
So if 43 percent of iPod owners want an FM tuner, why haven’t the Zune and SanDisk players been successful?
“Clearly, this is a great opportunity for Apple to better serve its millions of iPod customers, while keeping ahead of its growing competition.”
So Apple can keep ahead of its competition by adding in features that its competitors already have? The logic is making my head hurt.
Also note the reference to the iPod nano and shuffle. Considering how large the Zune and SanDisk players are that include an FM tuner, wouldn’t this added hardware make the nano and shuffle larger than customers prefer? Yet that doesn’t stop Jacobs from noting in the first paragraph “But iPod owners – in particular – want an FM radio in that next Nano or Shuffle.”
And they also found that “The best settings to use an iPod-like device are while working out (61%), walking (42%),” which are the types of setting best suited to an iPod nano or shuffle.
“It’s a no-brainer,” notes Jacobs. “If Apple truly wishes to make the most versatile, user-friendly personal mp3 devices, an FM tuner should be standard equipment.”
I’m starting to think that Jacobs should look in the mirror if they’re looking for a no-brainer.
They’re not the first critics to point out the iPod’s lack of built-in radio tuner, but according to Steve Jobs, customers aren’t making much noise about it. “We don’t get a lot of customers asking for it,” he said to Macworld in September 2005.
Although there are certainly those who have wanted the iPod to gain FM tuner capabilities, I thought those voices would be silenced after Apple released the iPod Radio Remote in January 2006.
Wait, what? Apple has an official FM tuner for the iPod already? Yes, if you have an iPod nano or an iPod that supports video, you can “listen to FM radio on your iPod and control everything with a convenient wired remote. You also get a set of earphones with a shorter cable that’s a perfect fit for the remote.”
All this for only $49. Plus, it’s integrated with the iPod’s built-in software (check your Settings to see the hidden functionality) and doesn’t require any batteries because it’s powered by the iPod.
So if iPod users really want an FM tuner, why aren’t they just getting it?
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Actually, what I would really prefer is an AM tuner. I don’t listen to much FM when I do listen to the radio, but the iPod Radio Remote is FM-only, and therefore mostly useless to me.
“43% of Radio fans want an iPod tuner.”
Terrible statistic
Seen as these stats will be from people who actually listen to the radio surely.
I only listen to one radio show, and you know what thats downloaded off a torrent site in .mp3 format with the terrible music and adverts edited out of it.’
Two of the radio shows that actually had me using my car stereo to listen (one on AM, so no iPod radio remote) are now available via podcasts, so that negates almost any need for an iPod with radio for me.
FM Radio SUCKS!!!!!! That’s why I have an iPod. Not the other way around.
I’m sick of the crap the record companies have been force feeding us for years. Forget them and their DRM.
The KCRW, and KEXP podcast are the best way to find great music.
Don’t forget about Pandora. The days of the Shock jock are over. Die top 40 die!! It’s the best thing that could happen to music.
Who actually PAID for them to study this? Given the number of local radio anti-iPod ads I’ve seen in Sacramento, this looks like a larger marketing plan for radio to me, as the writer suggests.
I bought the FM remote, works great….I keep it in the event there’s urgent news I need to grab on Public Radio!
Radio. Heh heh. That’s so cute.
The iPod is about choosing what you want to listen to, and avoiding that which you do not want to hear (annoying DJs, annoying ads, annoying static from bad reception). Radio is a tired old medium built around what advertisers want.
I get my fill of radio listening to the news in my car. Aside from that, I have no need for terrestrial radio, and I’m not alone in that sentiment.
actually, i’m one of those people who wants fm. why? because i like listening to sports radio. because of this, i did go out and get the fm tuner accessory. i like how it works, but the design is far from perfect. what you are missing, dear author, is the added mess that the accessory gives you. the cord is ridiculously long, and then there’s the who shuffle-sized remote that is attached to the cord. it works, but it’s not the best idea when they could just as easily have included it like other people do. in fact, the cord is so long that i have it spooled up with a twist tie. another inconvenient aspect to this setup is that by utilizing the dock connection, one cannot use the nike kit while listening to radio broadcasts.
if you don’t want it, don’t use it. nobody is forcing you. i know i skip out on using the crap i don’t care about – like uploading contacts or having a pocket constitution or bartender drink guide.
Actually I haven’t listened to FM in years! My car radios are all tuned to the local AM sports radio stations. At work I’ve noticed the companies cars are usually on AM stations upon entering ranging from news, commentary, or sports.
The only place this would be nice is working out in the gym. The televisions have an FM broadcaster attached allowing you to listen in if you wish. Not sure this really warrants compromising my ipod’s design however. A small FM receiver to stick in my gym bag wouldn’t break the bank.
Steve is probably right.
Don’t burden my iPod with a useless feature. There isn’t any radio worth listening too in my area. I’m much happier with podcasts and music I put on my iPod thanks.
An FM tuner would be completely useless to me. It’s not a selling feature and I don’t understand why so many people want one.
I half wonder if the people surveyed are confused and think that’s the FM transmitter feature they’re asking for instead of receiving radio signals.
I think your posting was unnecessarily snarky. A radio receiver does not take that much additional real estate to be installed in a unit, nor is it a big expense. That’s fine that some, or even most, people may not use it. But most of us don’t use a lot of the features iTunes/iPod has, does that mean Apple shouldn’t make the features available? As for who would use it and why – I listen to NPR (radio) on the way to work in the morning and my music (mp3′s) on the way home. At the gym, if I want to watch TV while working out, the sound is broadcast on FM radio. Also, what about the emergencies that you WANT and NEED to get news? Why should I have to have a separate radio for that? So, Apple nicely offers the radio connection as an accessory – AT $49.00! What portable radio costs $49.00??? That’s more than half the cost of a Shuffle and a third of the coast of a Nano…
If you are going to pay $249 for a FM tuner you need to get your head examined. If you wanted the radio goto Walgreens and get a transitor radio for $9.99.
Thanks but NO thanks, leave my iPod radio free, thats why I bought it for I can listen to MY OWN music, podcast, videos, photos.
I’d buy a iPod in a minute, if besides the outdated FM radio, it included a VHF-UHF scanner with international and marine shortwave bands, long wave band, X and K radar detector and laser detector. It must also include a anachronistic corkscrew, can opener, and bottle opener too. And an absolute must, also include a folding shovel, so I can dig a foxhole to protect me from the tomatoes your readers will probably throw at me now.
Forget FM.
I want satellite radio on my iPod, but without the ugly headphones antenna (Sirius Silluetto). That would be perfect… music, sports, talk, whatever. Then when I plug in my iPod into my car, I will have sat radio/iPod all in one!
I’m a little surprised as to the tone of putting a radio tuner in an iPod. Since a “transistor radio” is only $9.99, then adding a radio tuner to an iPod should be all but free.
However, I do agree that I don’t really want a standard FM tuner in an iPod. I would prefer to have an HD radio tuner in my iPod. At least with HD Radio, the quality of the music is more like what I would expect.
Sure, radio has commercials and most stations play crap. However, there are a few cities in the US where they have a decent playlist and it’s not all that bad listening to the radio.
What would really be nice would be to have an XM/Sirius satellite radio tuner in an iPod. However, that would make the iPod bigger.
I still want a way of discovering new music. There are very few alternatives out there that offer a decent way to do that. Since it sounds like Mr. Jobs isn’t going to allow subscriptions in the iTunes Store, I really need a way to discover new music without wasting too much money. Radio is at least an alternative.
Go Pigstare. IF we had VHF/UHF, we could watch TV! Oh wait, that system will be shut down soon, huh?
I’d trade 5 FM tuners for a lonely AM Tuner. Everything that is on FM radio is on my iPod. obviously the AM tuner wasn’t even an option in this poll.
Take a look at the options the poll gave people other than FM tuner. More capacity (80 gigs is plenty for almost everyone), larger screen (don’t need it unless your wanting to watch video), play videos (already in the ipod), smaller (hello nano) or none.
Since I would feel silly by responding “none” (there’s always room for improvement in anything) I’d have probably said FM Tuner too! Not that I really want one, or that the lack of one would keep me from upgrading, but simply because Apple has answered the other four complaints already! Overall, this is simply a poorly worded question looking for a skewed response.
Terrestrial radio is almost dead, and Big Music inflicted the fatal wounds. Radio has become a cultural wasteland where all the DJs nationwide play the prescribed “hits” 20 times a day, where there is no true variety, where The Suits dictate what we will like based on what they think will sell to our demographic. Screw them, and screw what they’ve done to radio, and screw what they do to the musicians.
I listen almost exclusively to my iPod, and listen to podcasts of nationally syndicated radio shows (Randi Rhodes on Air America and the Tech Tuesday show on NPR). There are only two shortcomings to like without terrestrial radio: not being able to get traffic/weather in real time, and not being able to call in to talk radio shows as they broadcast. Neither of those shortcomings is enough to get me to turn the radio back on, and it sure as hell isn’t a shortcoming in the iPod. The fact that I and others like me can cut the cord from radio will hasten the demise of it and Big Music, and I say it can’t happen fast enough.
Really, what the headline should read is:
“57% of AVID radio listeners AGREE: We Don’t Want FM on our iPod!”
pigstare, my friend, you absolutely nailed it. Especially considering scott Larmer’s comment.
First, there are tons of things the iPod could do. When they introduced the iPod video, my first reaction was, “It would be really cool if I could watch TV shows on it! So it should pick up VHF/UHF/Digital broadcasts! That would be awesome!”
But would I use that capability? Rarely. There’s not a whole lot on TV that I watch and what I do watch, I tend to TiVO.
The iPod is not the be-all and end-all. It’s a very good music player. I like my nano. I use it on my bike (when on bike paths) and I’m planning to get a car kit so it will work with my car stereo (alas, my car is too old for a manufacturer kit). But that doesn’t mean I’m going to throw out my car’s AM/FM radio, though it might mean getting rid of my CD changer. I need to investigate this further.
So I tend to agree with others that if you want a small wearable AM/FM receiver, there are plenty on the market. I actually own a small wearable AM/FM radio. I don’t use it much but it holds it’s place in my drawer for “emergencies,” right next to the flashlights. But I’d rather keep the smaller nano and shuffle about the music and not increase their size, weight, and such with things that I will rarely use.
Most stuff I listen to on the radio these days are available as podcasts these days anyway. And what I find is that I find it hard to actually listen to all of them within the week.
One thing that is getting more popular her in the UK is digital radio (DAB), I wouldn’t mind seeing this integrated into version 8 or so as I know that it would make the ipod far too bulky these days, and as other people mentioned not all people want this, so a DAB version of the FM Radio Remote would be on my shopping list.
Putting an FM tuner into the iPod would make the iPod more expensive in Germany since there’s a licence fee for radio receivers (or rather devices that can receive radio programmes) of ~5 Euros per month. That’s another 60 Euros per year for as long as you own the iPod.
FM? Feh. XM would be better, but the sound quality still sucks. I use an iPod because I want my music, not stuff that somebody else wants me to listen to.
Funny thread. Murphy’s law: for every missing feature there’s a brand whore apologist.
I want an FM tuner in my ipod, but not for music. I listen thru speakers at work (I’m in construction) and want to switch to NPR for Fresh Air at 4:00 and all things considered at 5:00. after listen to music on the ipod for 8 hours or so, I’m ready for a little news and information.
I understand your head hurting, but I think the “keep ahead of the competition” reference (in relation to adding FM radio which other players already have) suggests that keep ahead but not allowing a gap to develop in other areas of functionality. That is, if you have better functionality and someone comes along with a not quite so good player that has functionality you don’t, you can maintain the status quo (i.e., your positional leadership) by adding the same functionality.
I’d welcome an FM radio. There are just times when I’d like to. I understand most of has limited appeal but, for the sake of a $5 IC, they could add it to the iPod and we’d at least have the choice.
So 43% of iPod owners want FM Radio? Then they can buy the bleedin’ remote control. The rest of us who have no interest in generic, playlist-centric commercial radio can save US$50 on the price of our iPods.
Now, if only Apple would do just the opposite and release an iPod with an FM modulator…
The iPod started as a music device. I don’t understand why some people are so hostile against those who want FM radio in the iPod. It’s cheap (an internal FM tuner chip wouldn’t justify a price increase of $49) it’s tiny and it gives you access to sports, news, tons of ads and some music you may haven’t come across.
We’ve swallowed features that were more costly than an FM tuner; the colour screen that drained more battery than the monochrome one, the video playback in this tiny screen, games…
I would appreciate everything that doesn’t add up to the price, and allows me to have less things dangling from my iPod. If that included a cork opener (and it didn’t harm my iPod’s design, of course!), would be more than ok with it.
The price shouldn’t be the problem here.
Just yesterday, I bought the Philips SA3115, 1 GB Flash Player, with a quite big color display, MP3, WMA, Movie capapilities, FM Tuner, Voice Recorder, all with a nice navigation menu (does look a bit like on the iPod). The device can be mounted as a regular USB drive, no compulsory use of iTunes needed. All that for EUR 69,00.
I will now sell my iPod Video 80 GB on eBay, maybe I will buy again, when Apple comes out with multitouch widescreen iPods. ;-)
i think you all are correct. ipods are not only meant for music or videos or photos or other things but also as a radio.
I guess none of you listen to the news on NPR (National Public Radio), huh? Some of us baby boomers follow what’s going on in the world. As such, I’d definitely like an integrated FM tuner, as the FM tuner accessory is very inconvenient, with way too much wire connecting it to the iPod. I think this simply comes down to Apple selling music, and if you can get radio on the iPod, their bean counters have figured out that they’ll sell 5% (or whatever) fewer tunes. Even one percent would be a lot of money for them.
I held off for three years buying an iPod because it didn’t come with an AM/FM tuner. Finally broke down this xmas and purchased 80 GB and also the FM tuner which really only gives me 2/3 of what I want in a product.
Primarily I need the tuner to listen to NPR (I am not even a baby boomer). I suppose the tuner doesn’t need to be incorporated in the iPod, but there’s a market for tuners either as an attached product or other. The technology has been around for a long time. What does it take?
As many of the contributors suggest why not an fm tuner to provide benefits many could make use of ? Do 43% of users/owners make use of other features ? If not let’s bin those features as others have suggested. I will not buy an iPod until it has this basic feature that just about every other similar product on the market has as standard. Just another case of Mr Jobs believing his own pr and that my friends is why Apple, despite some great products and innovations, will always be second in the big picture !
I would like a FM tuner. The gym I use brodcast’s television sound on FM channels. Yes, I could get a cheap something. But, which one am I going to use today? sometimes I feel like music, sometimes TV, soemtimes books, and sometimes podcasts. Seems counter productive. Just more stuff…..
I feel the iPod is over priced to begin with. Add to that the iTunes limitations and the lack of FM tuner, a Samaung player is a far better choice for me. Equal build quality, useable/useful features, including a great FM receiver make it my first choice at less than half the cost of the iPod.
An AM tuner is better for me…the FM stations here only play Country, 70/80′s….better selections on AM