Well, the day has finally arrived, and not a moment too soon - the long anticipated Slacker Portable is shipping today, according to LAPTOP Magazine.
Some folks already have their Slacker Portables because the company decided to send out pre-launch units to those who preordered the product. But it's finally available now for the rest of us (check out my hands-on photos from CES here).
Even more interesting is the interview that LAPTOP had with Slacker's VP of Marketing Jonathan Sasse, where he hinted that the "mobile application" of Slacker will be coming later in 2008. That "mobile application" of course will be the satellite-enable cardock.
The interview gives some very intriguing insight into how Slacker differentiates itself from other forms of "radio." I've conveniently included a snippet of interest after the jump, but you're welcome to read the entire interview for yourself.
How do you feel about HD Radio coming on the scene?
We look at HD radio as an answer to satellite radio. When satellite radio came out it had more channels, better quality than FM. HD is also offering that alternative: more stations, better quality. The real differentiator for us is the personalization aspect. You aren’t necessarily picking from many genres and then listening to that, but you are listening to exactly the music you want to hear and you are skipping the content you don’t. The stations are based on your preferences and your tastes.
Do you guys think Slacker will get this message across so people don’t think of it as an alternative to satellite radio?
I think that is a challenge. We develop our messages around personal radio and the personal experience. “You always want to hear the content you want when you want to hear it” is one of our key messaging points.
Competitors, like Pandora, have included mobile applications on carrier cell phones. How would you guys rise above the other Internet radio mobile applications?
We still don’t see that model as being the right model in that it requires a connected live stream in order to listen to the service. As you go from network to network or covered areas to non covered areas or places like subways and airplanes, that constant live connection isn’t satisfactory.
As we look to move into the mobile space, we look to extend the experience we are putting on our portables, which is very very smart caching of content which allows your radio station to play without being connected. I think that is critical in the mobile space, as you consume cell phone bandwidth or Wi-Fi, it still is an inferior experience and there are still many areas of consumption where it won’t work.
From the LAPTOP interview:
How do you feel about HD Radio coming on the scene?
We look at HD radio as an answer to satellite radio. When satellite radio came out it had more channels, better quality than FM. HD is also offering that alternative: more stations, better quality. The real differentiator for us is the personalization aspect. You aren’t necessarily picking from many genres and then listening to that, but you are listening to exactly the music you want to hear and you are skipping the content you don’t. The stations are based on your preferences and your tastes.
IMHO he conveniently left out a few important points:
-HD Radio still has commercials.
-HD Radio will still be censored.
-HD Radio still does not provide coast-to-coast coverage.
-HD Radio will still have corporate influenced playlists.
-HD Radio does NOT offer all genres of music at all times.
-HD Radio receivers are still not free; they must be purchased.
it sure had a lot of bugs even after the 1.4 firmware upgrade.
i just had my field trial unit lock up and have no way of resetting it without sending it back to them
guess they had to start generating some revenue, lets hope it does not hurt the long term rep of the product
no docking station, no car adapter ready....they really should have waited
I'll give it this. It sure does look sexy.
That huge screen is really nice.
It'll be interesting to see where they go with it. I'm sticking with Sat rad, though.
I listen to a lot of "live" programming on Sat rad like talk shows and news, so it's a better choice IMHO
My only complaint is this radio is expensive!
I'm sorry, but this gadget looks like a loser to me. I'm sure there will be early-adopters, just as there were with sat radio.
But ultimately, the market is very much a niche and it offers little to differentiate it from the iPod, which is its principal competitor.
I'm not sure why anyone would buy one of these devices -- particularly, if they already have an iPod and/or satellite radio -- both of which are now tightly integrated into new cars.
I have so much shit to choose from in my car that it is totally wasted. Between XM and an iPod (plus an hard drive in the dash that can store 3k tracks and will never, ever be used), why would I want this?
Looks like a loser to me.
If Mel were savvy, he's purchase Slacker, transform the device into a SIRIUS portable, and ues the SIRIUS satellite constellation to steam songs to these new portable devices.
Or he can try to create it all from scratch...and maybe get something similar within 3-5 years.
I'm not convinced that it is actually shipping today. I have a preorder that is supposed to ship in February. Over at www.slackerforum.com and www.slackersocial.com no one has posted that they have a tracking number. I think there might have been an unannounced delay.
Texas) the number of residential foreclosures increased 100% in the third quarter of this year. These are very sobering statistics when you think about 446