According to a recent study by Bridge Ratings, the percentage of respondents who would be interested in purchasing an HD Radio has dropped in the past six months.
As a result Bridge has reduced their original projections for full year 2007 HD Radio sales from 2.1 million to 1.5 million total HD Radio units sold. The study also shows that "awareness" of HD Radio is on the rise, something that terrestrial radio fanboys trade publications would rather focus on, though they are completely ignoring the reduction in full year sales estimates.
Oddly enough, while "awareness" of HD Radio is climbing, knowledge of what exactly HD Radio does is on the decline. This most likely has to do with the brand confusion between HD Radio and HDTV. Everyone knows what HDTV is, so it's a pretty simple jump to be aware of HD Radio - so perhaps general awareness of the term "HD" is just on the rise itself.
One thing I'd like to kindly point out to the boys at Bridge Ratings. In their 2nd question they asked respondents: Do You know what HD or High Definition Radio is or what it does? - this question in syntactically incorrect. The fact is, the "HD" in "HD Radio" doesn't stand for "high-definition" as it's television brethren does.
As Peter Ferrera, president and CEO of the HD Digital Radio Alliance said, "Quite honestly, it [HD Radio] doesn't stand for anything. The concept was somewhat of a steal from HD television, where viewers know it means better quality"
And Bridge's study punctuates that point.
I hate to point out the obvious, but you can't write...
"The fact is, the "HD" in "HD Radio" doesn't stand for "high-definition" as it's television brethren does."
And then NOT say what it actually stands for! I looked it up in Wikipedia and it's actually "Hybrid Digital," in case anyone else was frustrated.
On Wikipedia it continues to say "Although the acronym HD has come to mean "high-definition" in reference to HDTV, the "HD" in HD Radio is a trademark with no meaning (although a hybrid digital technology is used)."
See what happens when you try to bash the site owner...you get pwned.
We now know, that with 75% of Americans aware of HD Radio, at some level, the number of HD radios sold each year, will probably decline.
To check on-going interest in HD Radio:
http://www.google.com/trends?q=%22hd+radio%22
To check interest in HD Radio versus Satellite and Internet Radio:
http://www.google.com/trends?q=%22hd+radio%22%2C+%22satellite+radio%22%2C+%22internet+radio%22&ctab=0&geo=all&date=all
Even after a $200,000,000 advertising campaign, by the HD Radio Alliance, the popularity of HD Radio, Satellite Radio, and Internet Radio, are just blips on the screen, compared to iPods and MP3s:
http://www.google.com/trends?q=%22HD+Radio%22%2C+iPod%2C+MP3%2C+%22Internet+Radio%22%2C++%22Satellite+Radio%22&ctab=0&geo=all&date=all
HD Radio is a joke of a technology, and consumers are not interested in this farce !
I have JVC KHDR-1 radioi in my truck and enjoy using XM sat, Ipod and HDradio for me its all about choice. Here in south florida the number of local stations offering multicast programming is growing. I enjoy mostly country music and with this setup I have almost a dozen choices.Dont bash HDradio till you try it! And yes it does sound better than XM and its free!
millertime,
aids is also free, doesn't mean it's worth getting.
commercials automatically negate ANY positive qualities you might see in it.
yes commercials suck! thats why I have XM, but right now in my market(south florida) the local stations that are HDradio Multicasting are commerical free! for how long is anyones guess.
yes commercials suck! thats why I have XM, but right now in my market(south florida) the local stations that are HDradio Multicasting are commerical free! for how long is anyones guess.
What's the bitrate for "HD" Radio? 64, 92, 128 kbps? If it's any less than 100 kbps, I can't imagine it will sound better than analog FM with a strong signal.