According to various sources, the supply of XM Satellite Radio's retail products appears to be running thin, and some products have even run to the end of their life.
The
RoadyXT, once seen as a technological accomplishment when it was unvealed in 2005, along with the fan-favorite SkyFi2 are now officially "end of life," and no more units are available from major distributors, according to people familiar with the matter.
UPDATE: I was just told that "there are still plenty" of RoadyXT/SkyFi2 units out there, but that Best Buy and Circuit City have stopped selling them a while ago.
Additionally, according to sources, new
Pioneer Innos have been back-ordered from Pioneer for about two months now, and fresh stock won't be available until mid-June at the earliest. The aging Inno, now 2-years old, was also once considered a gadget-lover's dream.
Back in Fall of last year, XM CEO Nate Davis told Reuters that the company plans to introduce
new portable receivers in 2008, citing a strategy to partner with GPS and mobile phone providers.
Sadly, nearly six-months into the year, we have yet to see any evidence of this (unless you consider
the BlackBerry deal as fulfilling the latter).
So what gives? Has XM completely abandoned the retail market?
At least Sirius has released the
Stiletto 2 and apparently has plans for new receivers like the
Stratus 5 and the
Starmate 5. Yes, they don't look like leaps in technology, but at least it's
something.
Where is XM's new portable radio? Where's the "new Inno"? What the
hell is XM thinking?
At one point, I had learned that a "new Inno" was indeed in development - featuring additional buttons and a larger connector. Unsurprisingly, the next-generation device was also to have some RIAA-limiting functionality that would only allow for "disaggregating" of songs recorded
individually, not recorded as a channel. But since then, the buzz has gone silent, and I don't know if it's even still in the works.
Now business is business. It's understandable that the
current state of retail doesn't support the case to dedicate a large budget to R&D and the release of new devices.
But, at some point, this becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. If you don't come out with new products, don't be surprised when sales continue to decline.
There's
value to further developing sleek new gadgets, even if they don't fly off the shelves. Consider them to be "flagship" products - much like the Corvette is to Chevy, or the Viper is to Dodge. Sure, they don't sell as much as a mini-van, but they keep your company in the top-of-mind - especially with enthusiasts.
A
touchscreen portable device with gigs upon gigs of storage may be expensive, and only sell a paltry number of units (though, at a high margin),
but it certainly doesn't position your company as being stale.Don't be like terrestrial radio. Don't relegate your service strictly to vehicles. Don't be isolated to devices that people scoff at. And most importantly, don't allow a merger to get in the way of growing a business.
XM Satellite Radio will carry the MLB first-year player draft in its entirety on June 5th and 6th on XM channel 188. 
