HD Radio is a technology that had a lot of promise initially, especially since it offered CD-quality sound to replace FM transmissions and FM-quality sound to replace AM, but as the years go on its widespread adoption seems to be weighted down by a combination of consumer confusion and apathy. The upcoming HD Radio app for the iPhone and iPod Touch doesn’t seem like it’s going to change that trend anytime soon.
The app requires a Gigaware HD Radio accessory, which can be had for the low-low price of $80 and is only available at Radio Shack. Honestly, it seems as if they’re setting up this app to fail from the start. Very few people will invest that much money for a new unproven technology, especially when FM radio falls in that murky category of “good enough tech” (DVD is another). It’s also fairly inconvenient since using the HD Radio app means you’ll have another device dangling off of your iPhone/iPod, along with its own mess of wires.
There’s simply no reason for someone to get this accessory when they can put that $80 towards a Zune HD, and get support for HD Radio built right into the device. According to Ibiquity, the company behind HD Radio, they’ve also been in talks to get Apple to include HD radio support in future devices, which will make this purchase quickly obsolete. But hey, at least the spokesperson seems very excited about it.
[Source: WSJ Digits]
November 9th, 2009 at 4:04 pm
HD radio sounds nice, but I can’t see myself using this set up even if it were free. I can already listen to 1000 songs or podcats via the iPod, or I can listen to hundreds of other FREE radio stations.
November 9th, 2009 at 5:20 pm
Totally agreed, the only way people are going to jump on this tech is if it’s included with the player. They’re basically just throwing away their money releasing this.
December 8th, 2009 at 7:08 pm
What about the person who wants to hear the game while out some where? I wish I knew where there was a good radio app that would let my husband listen to any radio station that broadcast online. We tried some apps but none had stations in our area even the ones that broadcast online.