By Lynn Shannon
Alpine Electronics said it is now shipping two full-featured receivers with TuneIt — the app for in-car sound tuning and Facebook (Facebook Inc., NASDAQ:FB) alerts.
The CDE-HD149BT and CDE-HD148BT radios let you adjust the sound tuning specifically for your car and to view sound tuning on the screen in a graphic display. Users must download the Alpine TuneIt app and then connect their smartphone to the radio. Read More
By Demian Russian
With Sirius XM Radio (NASDAQ:SIRI) heading into Q1 2013 earnings, there was much to discuss on this month’s Satellite Radio Roundtable. Following is a transcript of the April, 2013 edition of Satellite Radio Roundtable (Part 1).
The Participants:
Host and Moderator
Demian Russian, Editor-in-Chief, Market Playground and Satellite Radio Playground
Panelists
Spencer Osborne, Writer, SiriusBuzz and Seeking Alpha
Rick Aristotle Munnariz, Writer, The Motley Fool
Satellite Radio Roundtable — April, 2013 (Part 1)
Demian Russian:
Welcome to the April 2013 Satellite Radio Roundtable. Thanks for joining us. Pleased and honored! Thrilled to have you on the show. This is exciting. We’re going to be talking about Sirius XM satellite radio. We’ve got earnings being reported, Q1 earnings, on Tuesday, April 30th, that morning before the opening bell — so, we’ve got some things to talk about here. First, I want to go to you, Rick Aristotle Munnariz, and I want to talk about MySXM. We saw this officially launched by the company. They were late in their promise last year to even get it to the desktop. Eventually, we saw a few weeks later desktop and beta, then eventually beta on the mobile devices. Now we’re seeing an official launch, Android and iPhone capability there and also on the desktop out of beta. And also, recently, we’re seeing Sirius XM now include Internet radio with their OEM trials, BMW now the most recent one announced. What are your thoughts about all of this? Is this an opportunity for Sirius XM, or is this going to be offering their satellite radio subscribers training wheels to Internet radio where they say, “Hey, this Internet radio is great. Maybe I’ll go to a less expensive service like Pandora, Slacker, or even a free service from someone else.” What are your thoughts? Read More
By Amy Gilroy
Alpine Electronics Inc. (TYO:6816) is now shipping its first MirrorLink car radio, a high tech receiver that also offers Siri Eyes Free.
First shown at CES in January, the ICS-X7HD uses MirrorLink technology to let the car radio mimic and control many apps that are on certain Android phones. You can tuck your phone away and let the car radio take over the controls, while viewing app info on the car radio’s 7-inch touch screen display (WVGA). Read More
By Statista
Thursday was a busy day for Pandora Media Inc. (NYSE:P). The company’s CEO Joe Kennedy surprisingly announced his resignation before reporting decent results for the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2013 (Pandora’s fiscal year ends January 31).
The popular Internet radio service provider continued to grow healthily in the past three months, but failed to turn a profit. Pandora (P) has 65 million active users and total listening hours increased 52 percent over last year’s fourth quarter. The company now accounts for 77 percent of online radio listening and 8 percent of total radio listening in the United States. Revenue grew 54 percent year over year to $125 million, of which an impressive $80 million or 64 percent came from mobile usage. Read More
By Amy Gilroy
Aha Radio, the app that gives car radio users easy access to 30,000 radio stations, Facebook, Twitter and podcasts, will soon be available on Alpine car radios as well as 10 leading car OEM systems such as the Ford Sync and Chrysler Uconnect. Read More
By Xavier Brenner
Pandora Media Inc. (NYSE:P), the hugely popular internet radio service, has been taking a beating from the tech press and investors. While users love its mobile app and deep reservoir of musical genres, analysts have cast doubt over whether the company has a sustainable business model. Hence the 17% drop in Pandora’s stock this year:
Pandora gets its revenue from online and mobile advertising as well as a premium subscription service that lets users listen to music without ads. However, the company faces two big strategic challenges: runaway royalty costs, and Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL). Read More
By Amy Gilroy
Ford Motor Company (NYSE:F) announced it has sold over 5 million vehicles with the Sync radio system in 5 years.
Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT), which co-developed Sync, said it continues to improve the system and is now focused on connecting it to sensors and other sources of data to help the driver.
Other advances in the Sync will be in natural language processing and “machine learning” to create a more natural interaction between the car and driver.
The car may become the most high tech device of all, said Ford. It’s Chief Technology Officer Paul Mascarenas noted, “The car is a rich source of real-time data and when combined with the processing power available in the cloud, it could become the smartest device you will ever own.”
We think it’s fair to say that the Sync helped launch the “connected car.” Read More
By Sven Olson
Sirius XM Radio Inc.(NASDAQ:SIRI) announced third quarter 2012 financial and operating results on November 1st, which included revenue of $867 million, up 14% from revenue of $763 million in the same quarter of 2011. Net income for the third quarter 2012 and 2011 was $75 million and $104 million, respectively, including a loss on extinguishment of debt of $107 million in the third quarter of 2012. Adjusted EBITDA for the third quarter of 2012 was $245 million, which was up 24% from $197 million in the same quarter of the previous year.
“Sirius XM Radio delivered a very strong third quarter for our shareholders, with 446,000 net subscriber additions, double-digit growth, and record levels of revenue, adjusted EBITDA, and free cash flow. The company has produced more free cash flow in the first nine months of this year than in any full year in its history, and we’ve used this cash to reduce our debt to its lowest level since the merger of Sirius and XM,” said Mel Karmazin, CEO of Sirius XM Radio. Read More
By Amy Gilroy
Pioneer is showing some unique features at the SEMA show this week in two car radio lines updated for 2013. Read More
By Amy Gilroy
Audiovox (VOXX International Corporation, NASDAQ:VOXX) Driven by DICE announced the first car kits to work with the iPhone 5 without an adapter, as well as older iPhones running the new iOS 6 Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) operating system.
Two advanced DICE kits—the MediaBridge and Universal 200 series—have been tested and validated to work with the new Apple technology.
The kits use a USB digital architecture that permits compatibility, even while many current car radios have only limited connectivity to the new iOS 6.
MediaBridge kits are already designed to take advantage of new iOS 6 features. The kits work with factory radios in certain cars to give you total Siri voice control over music playback so you can ask for a song, artist, playlist or a music genre. It allows hands free texting by voice and voice emails. Also incoming text messages can be read aloud by Siri, said Audiovox which markets and distributes the DICE kits.
Drivers can also launch music apps (Pandora (Pandora Media Inc., NYSE:P), Livio, Spotify etc.), turn-by-turn navigation, and locate and route to points of interest. Read More
By Amy Gilroy
If you upgraded your Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) iPhone 4/4S to the new iOS 6 you may lose Bluetooth control over your phone in many car radios.
According to Alpine and 200 complaints on the Apple user forums, certain radios from VW, Alpine, Pioneer, Kenwood, Clarion and others have Bluetooth issues. Some will no longer work with steering wheel controls and no longer show meta data info, nor let you control your phone from the radio buttons over Bluetooth.
You can still do basic streaming over Bluetooth, the problems occur when trying to control the music from the radio over Bluetooth.
Separately, those buying the iPhone 5 may have a different set of problems with their car radio involving a USB connection. Read More
By Amy Gilroy
General Motors (NYSE:GM) announced its budget-priced Chevy Spark will offer TuneIn Radio Internet Radio next year and Livio will provide the software or “middleware” connection to the service.
TuneIn is an up and coming app that provides access to more than 70,000 radio stations around the world without service fees. It has 40 million active users, largely in the United States. Pandora (NYSE:P), by contrast, has over 56 million active users.
Livio is not only an Internet Radio service and radio equipment supplier, but it also provides a middleware platform for apps for OEM use by the auto makers.
“This is our first major OEM announcement, and it’s with one the world’s largest auto makers,” said Livio founder and CEO Jake Sigal. “Livio helps speed up the development process for GM, ultimately getting consumers the technology they want, safely in the vehicle.” Read More
By Amy Gilroy
Have you ever dreamed up an app that might be great for car audio? If so, you may contact Transportation Technology Ventures, a new company formed to help create apps for the car and bring them to market.
Car apps, as we’ve reported, are the next big wave in car technology.
In 3 years you won’t be able to sell a car without app connections, said Jim Disanto, a tech entrepreneur who helped found Transportation Technology Ventures, which may be the first general app incubator and angel investment fund for car apps. Ford Motor Company (NYSE:F), for example, has its own incubator-style system.
Disanto notes there are more than a billion cars in the world and the car is the next great area for connectivity. In four years, about 90 million cars on the road will be able to run apps. Read More
By Amy Gilroy
Sony (NYSE:SNE) announced several new 2013 single DIN CD car radios to ship this fall, including two targeted for car audio specialist retailers. Additionally, several of the new radios have an App Remote feature that improves smartphone integration with the lineup.
Since single DIN radios don’t bear much of a screen, App Remote lets the phone become an add-on mini screen for a car radio (Sony suggests you mount the phone with a windshield kit).
With App Remote–an iPhone or Android app–your phone can control your car radio functions, launching the tuner, CD, USB or apps directly from the phone. Internet radio plays through the car’s speakers.
“The smartphone display becomes a supplemental display. If you have a phone cradle for the dash, you will see artist and song information, and cover art. You can forward to the next track or album on the phone,” said Sony Business Manager for Mobile Taka Noguchi. Read More
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