The American phone manufacturer has just announced plans to launch a music subscription service and official radio channels within this year.
iRadio will position Motorola in direct competition with XM Satellite Radio Holdings and Sirius Satellite Radio, two major radio services for cars and homes in the United States. Sirius is also a music distribution service for mobile phones operating on the Sprint network.
iRadio will initially operate on the Rokr E2 phone, without the integration of Apple’s popular iTunes software as seen in the previous Kokr version. Motorola will market the service through mobile content providers.
In October, Motorola revealed that the first iRadio device will have music storage capabilities of up to 70 hours.
iRadio will feature 435 commercial and free radio channels across genres such as Heavy Metal, Rockin’ Cowboys, and Angry Women. The program allows customers to download content to their computers and transfer it for listening on their phones or in their cars for a fee of approximately $7 per month.
Motorola will showcase iRadio at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas this week, alongside the launch of the C51, a device capable of utilizing landline, mobile networks, and VoIP services. Essentially, this is an extension device that operates within traditional phone networks. However, consumers can convert it into a mobile device to enhance call quality.
The C51 is set to hit the market this spring, and when connected to an adapter, it will be able to make internet phone calls at low costs.
