It's a slow news day which means that another "rumor" needs to hit the streets to justify everyone's salaries. This time around its... a Sirius and Apple partnership. Wow. How original.
Too bad it's just a rumor, and as usual, will continue to be just a rumor.
Yet the good folks over at Briefing.com have managed to create enough buzz on this that it's driven SIRI up a good $0.10 at today's current high. Oh joy.
Let's stop for a second and question... why? Why would Apple, who is enjoying a significant market leadership position, partner with "the competition" and muck with the iPod and iTunes? It ain't happening ...yet.

Apple and Sirius together would be a great partnership. and Ipod with SatRad would be sick, no?
"An Ipod with SatRad would be sick"
Already out. I love my Stiletto.
As long as it didn't LOOK like an ipod. :)
ipod is great yes but the interface to me is a pain. Probably for me because I do not use it enough and second because I keep all my mp3's on an external hard drive and loading them onto that from my laptop is just time consuming.
On another note did anyone catch the quote from Jobs about the Zune. He said it didn't impressed him. The publication made it sound like they were shocked. Why would he say he was impressed even it was a great product?
Sirius Internet Radio integration with iTunes. ITunes already has a "Radio" category, containing Internet streams. Integrating Sirius Internet Radio into iTunes is a logical evolution.
No.
The reason the iPod is so successful is because of its simplicity and style. They would never create a device that required external cables and antennas to work. They never (thank god) added an FM receiver to the unit and will not add satellite either.
If there is a partnership coming I wouldnt expect it to be any type of all in one device. Perhaps software or itunes related, but the iPod will not change for this feature. not for a while at least.
Possible but Im not sure. Looking at the trend of ipods it has been release a smaller unit so everyone buys that and then release a more feature rich one so everyone buys that as well. All of the ipods have been huge sellers because of this and the fact that you can just pick up an ipod and use it even if you do not have itunes. But a lot of people will eventually try itunes so they make money there as well.
With satellite, people have to have a subscription. Few people will run out and buy an ipod just for sat radio because of that and many more will hold off because they are not sure if they want to continue paying the monthly fee.
However, where else does Apple have to go to make the ultimate in portable media players, asside from the obvious things like smaller size, longer battery life, larger more vibrant display, more media formats, etc. My guess would be the next focus will be on streaming audio/video/tv over wifi. Or possibly the ability to connect to other ipods wirelesly and listen to friends content (though no file transfer).
Apple has an image to protect, while an satellite ipod will do well, it would do nowhere near as well as any other ipod and if they were to release one it would certainly be called a flop by the press. Other popular brands looking to one-up apple though are probably much more likely to integrate satellite radio.
It would be great exposure for Sirius if they put their streams on ITunes with the other online radio stations.
Perhaps there is something to the rumor; XM does the same thing with Microsoft's Windows Media Player and while it is great exposure, I doubt if it has helped XM's subscriber numbers much.
More interesting would be some kind of "joint" device, but given the inability of Sirius to produce a really viable wearable device to date (due to power consumption and fear of the RIAA), that seems much more distant.
OK, if you ask me then Apple and XM are going to merge to become Xpple which is going to be headed by Steve Jobs.
And then Siruis is going to combine with McDonalds and Mircosoft to become, "MCsidonalds". This company is headed by Bill Gates.
And then one day Godzilla is going to wake up, get hungry and eat Xpple and MCsidonalds. End of story. PS - Godzilla uses Bill Gates as a tooth pick.
Jim: I had that exact dream last night!
"...Godzilla uses Bill Gates as a tooth pick.
Now THAT would be cool!
:)
can't xm and sirius figure out how to cram a 30 plus gig hard drive in their portables? wouldn't that be the same? of course without the power of the apple name.
Its pretty short sighted to think Satellite Radio will have cables and large antennas forever, isn't it?
It's a slow news day which means that another "rumor" needs to hit the streets to justify everyone's salaries. This time around its... a Sirius and Apple partnership. Wow. How original.
Too bad it's just a rumor, and as usual, will continue to be just a rumor.
Yet the good folks over at Briefing.com have managed to create enough buzz on this that it's driven SIRI up a good $0.10 at today's current high. Oh joy.
Let's stop for a second and question... why? Why would Apple, who is enjoying a significant market leadership position, partner with "the competition" and muck with the iPod and iTunes? It ain't happening ...yet.
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I can tell you who keeps starting these rumors. It's the nervous retail investors. They're sick of losing money on SDARS, so they hype the stock price up with these ridiculous rumors.
Too bad they won't be pursued and sued for falsely pumping stock prices. I don't care WHAT company this happens to. If somebody does this, they should be severely punished.
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When the hell will these people realize that Apple doesn't need SDARS. Apple sold 70 million iPods. How many subs does SDARS have? About 12 million total. And Sirius has 5 million of those. The comparison is laughable.
Even IF Apple decided to team, how the heck is Sirius going to have a chip small enough to fit in an iPod within the next 2 years? Answer, they won't.
Please put these dumb rumors to rest. As much as I love SDARS, you can't compare a 500lb gorilla to a 10lb monkey.
"can't xm and sirius figure out how to cram a 30 plus gig hard drive in their portables"
Samsung (I believe) has just patented the worlds largest flash memory drive. It's about 32 GB. So....maybe this is a big plus for cost, lifespan, and functionallity of satrad MP3's... well, really everything from laptops to camera's, really anything that requires memory.
In the future... (matbe 2-3 yrs) this will work, but not now. Both XM and apple have good compitition in Sirius and Creative (and visa-versa). Now, they must figure out how to beat eachother, before they take eachother in to a partnership.