If this rumor proves to be true you can forget this shit about HD Radio going away. I'm serious as hell here. Apple can single handedly save HD Radio from the dumper.
I was a little intrigued when I first heard that on some HD Radio models listeners would be able to tag a song that they hear on their HD and buy that sucker on the iTunes Music Store. As Apple really didn't seem like they had much interest in the idea I really didn't pay any attention to the news at all.
Now there is this from iLounge.com:
Apple plans a push for iTunes Tagging-ready, HD Radio-equipped boomboxes with iPod docks during the mid-January Macworld Expo event in San Francisco, California. Announced in September, iTunes Tagging is a new HD Radio feature designed to further boost iTunes sales by allowing listeners to “Tag” the currently playing song, automatically adding its information to a “Tagged” playlist on the connected iPod. When synced with a computer, the playlist appears in iTunes, making it easy to purchase tagged tracks from the iTunes Store.
There are entire companies that exist to do nothing more than make accessories for iPods. The iPod is an economic machine, and if Apple actually does this it is a game changer for the HD Radio Alliance.
With the sheer number of people out there with an iPod, if Apple and iBiquity can put their heads together and put out a selection of HD Radio devices that will fill the need that many iPod owners have for alarm clocks and boomboxes that will interface with their iPods this will be a game changing, life saving move for HD Radio.
I have to question why Apple would get involved with this as they have never given one freshly shaved rats ass about terrestrial radio, but look at the pending merger of XM and Sirius and you might find an answer. As slight as the threat might be to the iPod economy, Apple may want to position themselves to have some type of a response to a combined XsiriusM. HD Radio sucks dirty, sweaty balls but it beats a fat blank.
As an iPod owner as well as a Sirius and XM subscriber I would have liked to see Apple cut a deal like this with either Sirius or XM. Or both. I would imagine that either service alone has more listeners than there are HD Radios in the wild and the cool factor would be off the chart for a device like that.
I also think it puts to bed any hopes or dreams that anyone might have that Apple would soak up one of both of the services. I never bought in to that one but if Apple were even thinking about starting to think about a satellite radio buy they wouldn't jump in to this as fast as they have.
I'm sure that the Apple haters will think that I am full of shit here, but as a long time Mac owner and lover I have learned over the Steve years to never count Apple out. Look at the iTV or whatever the hell they call it. Everyone has written it off as a dead product. Just wait until The Steve's plan is on the table. The Apple TV will change the way that people rent movies. Apple will also change the fate of HD Radio.
