XM Satellite Radio's XM WX weather service has been out for a while now, but has traditionally been targeted to the marine or aviation professional. But with the upcoming Bushnell ONIX400, weather data services will soon be available for the common man in handheld form (and in your car as well).
So the question on everyone's mind is: how much?
According to sources, the new consumer version of XM WX, entitled XM WX SkyWatch, will be available for only $3.99/month when combined with an XM Satellite Radio subscription. So that's a total cost of $16.94 a month.
If you want the SkyWatch package alone without XM radio, SkyWatch will run you $9.95 a month (personally, the audio + weather services sounds like a no-brainer).
The XM WX SkyWatch package includes graphical NEXRAD radar summary (aka Doppler Radar), National Weather Service warnings, your current weather conditions, and 3-day or 7-day city forecasts. Bye bye weather guy.
Also, according to these sources, XM WX is starting an "End of Season" package that allows you to suspend your account with no monthly fee until the start of the next season - with no re-activation fee. Genius.
Availability is supposed to be sometime in Summer 2007. Sign me up.
SOLD! SIGN ME UP! Oh wait... I need an Onix first... HURRY UP BUSHNELL!
Most Cell phones provide this service for free. The only No Brainer is they wont make any money off this "Bell and Whistle". Typical XM management decision here.
This is a cool feature, however:
1) I don't see it bringing in a whole lot of subs.
2) I don't see too many XM non-boating subscribers paying extra for it.
3) It would be nice if it was just part of the standard XM package. XM's badly losing the mindshare race to Sirius needs anything they can get to give them an edge.
Just my 2 cents...
Once again I agree with MikeHunt. Plus my two cents...
Couldn't they make a better looking unit? The Onix looks like crap!
Regarding Billy Miner's comments: The advertised service promises to offer a lot more weather information than what's available for free via cell phone. What will the actual service offer at launch? We'll see.
I have to disagree with you Mike Hunt, Mountain bikers, hikers, cross country skiers or just all around outdoor enthusiasts will be very interested in a device like this.
Motorcycle riders will make great use of this...
Seems to me about every weather hobbyist would want something like this. But what XM needs is to interest an equipment maker into producing a display device for the home. A GPS unit shouldn't be the only way this can be displayed. A free-standing display unit ought to be fairly cheap to produce.
I don't see myself paying $120 per year for weather data.
As a boater, I'm more interested in marine weather like waves, wind, precipitation, forecast, and synopsis. I can get the information over the Internet, from NOAA radio, a cell phone, TV/radio news.
As a hiker, I'm not interested in the weather beyond 10+ miles from my location. If it's raining where I'm at, I'll know without radar. I usually get my forecast from the Internet before I leave for a typical weekend mini-vacation.
Think about it...when you watch/listen to the weather news, how many really care about doppler? I don't. Just tell me if it is going to rain or not. Then I usually get the winds. Then I get the freezing level. For anything else that might change, I bring a barometer.