Sirius is doing everything it can to beat out XM. In just a few weeks, Howard Stern, it’s largest investment into the nationwide service since slapping some satellites into Earth’s orbit, will be chanting uninhabited choruses to the 1 million Sirius listeners. But that’s still 2 million less then XM and thus Sirius has it’s work still cut out for it. Needing more then just a potty-mouthed DJ to raise its numbers, the company is looking down other avenues to raise those numbers.
One such street is making a portable unit that allows you to record your favorite Sirius shows for later enjoyment. Add into the mix the ability to play WMA’s and MP3’s and you’ve got yourself a hit. Right? On paper, it sounds pretty good, but anytime you have content in the matter, Hollywood gets involved and that pretty much kills it. Hollywood doesn’t want too much of its content to be digitally recorded, thus it has put a two hour limit on the shows you can record from Sirius. Could you have imagined if TiVo would had have a similar limit on its PVR? Ya, death right out the gates. That’s pretty much what’s going to happen with the S50.
C|Net has reviewed the S50 and while the video and text is brief, you still come away knowing that what could have been a great win for Sirius turns out to be just an excellent contrast for XM. In C|Net’s own words, it tells readers, “If you want live satellite streaming on the go, you’ll need the Delphi MyFi XM2Go or Pioneer’s Airware XM2Go, which work with XM satellite radio.” Maybe better luck next time, Sirius.
[tags]mp3,dap,wma,sirius,s50,streaming,satellite,radio,howard stern[/tags]