Sprint gets Sirius
The latest trend seems to be the marriage of music to mobile phones. First it was mp3 ring tones, then the iTunes Motorola Rokr, now it’s Sprint and Sirius.
For a $7/month subscriber fee, Sprint users can flip open their mobile phones and listen in on 20 channels of Sirius Radio. This good in a couple of ways. First, Sirius finally has an on-the-go receiver, an area that XM has dominated in the past (Sirius claims that you can’t get good enough reception on the go). Second, it’s a good way to let potential customers cample Sirius music. If there were a free month trial included with a Sprint contract, they’d be in even better shape. And last, every new way that consumers can listen to Sirius radio gives them a competitive edge.
What we don’t like about the service is this: 1) it costs $84 bucks a year. For about $100 you could just get satellite radio. 2) Only 20 channels. While still better than nothing, it doesn’t exactly give me a reason to leave the iPod at home (not that I own one, although the Nano looks pretty cool).
I am a Sprint customer, and if the service was free, or if there was a free trial, or if it was just a buck or two per month, I would definitely take advantage of it, especially considering I don’t have an iPod. Let’s hope they lower their price in the future.
More opinions on the Spring/Sirius connection here.
