Garmin, the market share leader when it comes to personal navigation devices, has just taken the wraps off of their latest generation GPS devices: the nuvi 750, nuvi 760 and the nuvi 770.

The nuvi 700 series is packed full of cool features, like a "car locator" so you don't need to remember where you parked. It also includes a built-in MP3 players with Audible support, and a handy-dandy built-in FM transmitter (hey... remember those?) so you can either listen to your tunes or the turn-by-turn directions through your car stereo. The 760 and 770 also can receive real-time traffic reports, and let you steer clear of them.

But wait... where's the satellite radio support? There is none.

The real-time traffic data, is provided by an integrated FM TMC (Traffic Message Channel) traffic receiver. In the U.S., that data is provided by Clear Channel's Total Traffic Network. Not XM or Sirius.

And the MP3/Audible support is all you're going to find in the audio category. Never mind that they have that built-in FM transmitter issue already taken care of.

I've already ranted about how Sirius and XM have missed the boat when it comes to the personal GPS market, and this is just another example.

This morning, Garmin CFO Kevin Rauckman was on CNBC talking about the company's outlook, and he mentioned that they're focusing more on the Retail channel more than the OEM channel. The reasoning was that Retail just moved much faster than OEM, and they're just seeing much more sales on the Retail side.

This is exactly the opposite of satellite radio's strategy. Being included in personal GPS devices could be an opportunity for satellite radio on the retail side. It provides access to an affluent market who's willing to spend $500+ on a device, and if XM/Sirius applied the OEM model to Retail (i.e., complimentary 3-month or 6-month subscription), they gain access to more ears as well.

It's time to get on the ball with this one.

[Garmin Press Release]

One of the biggest drawbacks of Internet Radio is that it's hard to get it off your computer and used in everyday applications. This has been a big draw of devices like the Sonos which brings untethered access throughout the house.

But for those who just want a tabletop radio, there's now the Phoenix WiFi Radio by Com One. With it's built-in speakers, you can listen to Internet Radio wherever you have a WiFi connection.

There's absolutely no PC required, and the device works with both WEP (64 - 128 bits) and WPA encryption. It's not just for Internet Radio either, because with RSS support, you can listen to Podcasts as well.

It won't be too long before a whole generation defines "radio" as something completely different than what we know it as today. The same thing happened to the word "wireless" and it will happen again.

[Product Page]
Thanks Karl!

The Wall Street Journal this morning broke the news that MTV will combine forces with RealNetworks to form a new company that will battle it out against Apple's iTunes.

MTV's Urge music service will combine with RealNetworks' Rhapsody music service. The combined company will be called Rhapsody America, with the Rhapsody music service retaining its original name. RealNetworks will own 51% of the new company, with MTV owning the remaining 49%. Urge's head, Michael Bloom, will run the joint venture.

Also involved is Verizon Wireless (itself is a joint venture between Verizon and Vodafone), which has signed an exclusive relationship with the bunch. The new Rhapsody offering will be replacing Verizon's digital music offering: the VCast Music store. Verizon will also be replacing its existing PC-based service with the new Rhapsody client.

Verizon customers will be able to purchase songs from their PC, as well as over-the-air from the mobile phones. In fact, over-the-air downloads are said to be a very important part of this joint venture. Songs purchased on their phones can be access from the PC. Not relegated to just songs, Rhapsody will also include ringtones, album covers, ringback tones and music videos. Verizon plans to release phones compatible with Rhapsody so you can transfer subscription music to the devices as well.

The key takeaway from this morning's conference call is that there will be a massive marketing push to promote Rhapsody. Under the terms of the deal, MTV will provide $230 million over five years for "hard advertising" purposes, as well as provide "free" promotion in MTV programming and other integrated marketing efforts. It all kicks off with the MTV Music Video Awards on September 9th.

It's my understanding that Urge never really was well marketed by MTV. The whole deal with Urge was that MTV was supposed to supply the big-media awareness behind it, but that fizzled. When asked about that during the call, the response was that "firehose will open" for the first time.

Now if Verizon gets behind the joint venture with some of its own marketing muscle, you may have a serious competitor yet. Verizon is also promising 8gb music phones this year, with storage space to double in 2008. Bring together a proper over-the-air and side-loaded music experience, with some really neat music phones that have some real storage space, plus some serious marketing backing from MTV? You quite possibly have a viable competitor (though, still considered "niche" when compared to Apple's marketshare).

It's time for Sirius and XM to dedicate some serious resources to their mobile offerings. If ever we had a crystal ball to see what was coming, this is it.

[More on Billboard, Engadget, & Forbes]

Dell, the company that was to have its own portable XM receiver (and never did) has said it will buy Zing, the company that (successfully) built the Wifi component for the Sirius Stiletto.

Curious.

Zing makes software for consumer electronics that allows devices to connect and listen to music over Wifi. Stiletto users know all about this, as Sirius was the first to license the technology. Zing has since moved on to partner with SanDisk and most recently with Pandora for its own Wifi portable. Zing also receive $12.5 million in third-round funding earlier this year.

But now Dell has scooped up Zing, saying it reflects a "renewed interest and energy" in the company's consumer businesses. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

And while I doubt it means that a Dell DJ Satellite is back, you can almost guarantee that it means a new line of Wifi Internet Radio players will be coming to town.

[Forbes]
Thanks to everyone who sent this in!