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Sirius XM iPhone App Due Within Weeks

Wednesday May 6, 2009 12:04 pm PDT by Eric Slivka
The Wall Street Journal reports on the upcoming launch of an iPhone application from satellite radio provider Sirius XM, which is reportedly due "in the next few weeks." While details of how Sirius XM service will be deployed on the iPhone are not yet known, it is assumed that a subscription fee will be required in order to access the music channels.

The iPhone application likely will require purchasing a subscription, although Sirius XM has announced few details of how the plan will work. An estimated seven million people in the U.S. have iPhones, estimates Richard Klugman, an analyst at Majestic Research. Exposure for the Sirius service on the iTunes Store site of Apple Inc. could draw valuable attention from the gadget-loving crowd that flocks to the site.

The article places the upcoming iPhone application release within the context of Sirius XM's larger market and describes how the landscape has changed for satellite radio as the iPod and iPhone have changed the way people listen to music.

In releasing the new application, which will allow customers to stream satellite radio over their iPhones, Sirius XM appears to be tacitly conceding that the satellite-delivery system that once was cutting edge now has competition far beyond what its founders imagined. Sirius must prove it can hold its own in a world where cars have iPod jacks and phones can go online, allowing people to stream free music stations. And cars, where many people do most of their radio listening, are expected increasingly to have built-in Internet access.

While satellite radio has gained popularity, particularly with the increased adoption of satellite radio-ready stereos in new automobiles, the challenges of running a profitable satellite radio service led to the merger of Sirius and XM last year and have driven Sirius XM to find new ways to add subscribers and reduce churn, something the new iPhone application appears designed to address.
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deannnnn
Posted: 40 months ago
THEY MERGED??
How did I not hear about that!?
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DipDog3
Posted: 40 months ago

THEY MERGED??
How did I not hear about that!?


Yea, if you had either XM or Sirius, you would know that.

I just want to know if they will be charging another separate monthly fee for the iPhone. They already charge separately to listen online & extra to get NFL if you are on XM. I am not paying even more!!
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SomeTechGuy
Posted: 40 months ago
Hmmm, sounds like the perfect app for the "in-app purchase" subscription feature coming to iPhone 3.0 firmware. That's probably why it'll be a "few more weeks".
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smarch
Posted: 40 months ago
WAHHHHHHHHHH but i want it nowwwwwww
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evilyankeefan
Posted: 40 months ago

Yea, if you had either XM or Sirius, you would know that.

I just want to know if they will be charging another separate monthly fee for the iPhone. They already charge separately to listen online & extra to get NFL if you are on XM. I am not paying even more!!


I'm thinking if you already pay for online you will get access with the iPhone app. Makes no sense to double dip as if you have to you could always cancel the other. I too am anxious for this to come around.
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williej81
Posted: 40 months ago

I'm thinking if you already pay for online you will get access with the iPhone app. Makes no sense to double dip as if you have to you could always cancel the other. I too am anxious for this to come around.


You don't know XM/Sirius apparently.
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rdowns
Posted: 40 months ago
My free 3 months (from buying new car) was up and I opted to go month to month as I am not in the car much. I paid them way too much for last car and didn't listen much. Month to month costs like 12 or 13 bucks.

Two days later, I get a postcard offering month to month for 6 months for 5 bucks a month. Only took an hour on the phone to get them to honor the price. :rolleyes:

I don't see me paying another monthly fee for iPhone access.
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aidricksdad
Posted: 40 months ago
you can listen to sirius right now if you buy pocket tunes from the app store and it works great
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smarch
Posted: 40 months ago

you can listen to sirius right now if you buy pocket tunes from the app store and it works great



oh wow. didn't catch this. That's pretty sweet. I'm guessing you have to do that log-in procedure every time?
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ArtursBoy
Posted: 40 months ago
I somehow don't see XM Sirius start making money anytime soon. I used to have Sirius before the merge, and was fine with it, after the merge, they changed the programming, cancelled some of my favorite channels (I guess I liked the not so popular ones?) and found myself listening to Pandora, AOL Radio, Slacker or FlyCast more and more often on my car thru my iPhone. It's been a couple months since I cancelled and I'm glad I did.

The idea of them charging to allow people to listen to music when there are other (better in my opinion) free alternatives somehow just doesn't make too much sense to me. I mean, Slacker or FlyCast, or any other online radio station have way more variety, and the fact that they allow to skip songs on most of them and "learn" your musical taste is much more appealing to me than having a monthly fee and in some cases, putting up with DJ's on some stations.

I could be wrong, but I just dont see this app being a significant source of revenue for them.
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