Originally Posted by
Newman
As of the end of the 2nd quarter of 2007, exceeded 7.1 million subscribers with subscriber additions of 561,493 (over 1.1 million additions for the first half of 2007).
XM had announced 8.25 million customers with subscriber additions of 338,000 (an addition of 620,000 fir the first half, barely more than what Sirus added for the last QUARTER). This puts the difference in subscriber count at 1.15 million subscribers, down from the 1.61 million subscriber gap that I mentioned when I wrote the peice back in February. That is nearly half a million subscribers that Sirius has gained on XM, or 1/3 of the gap, and SIRI is still gaining market share. The unknown factor here is how the OEMs will ramp up their installs, but as far as retail goes, most are expecting minimal additions for XM, and possibly even a retail LOSS of customers. Sirius is still gaining ground there as well. They may not make it by the end of 2007 (only two more quarters to go) but they have put in one hell of a dent in the gap. I can almost guarentee that they will be virtually even by end of first or second quarter 2008 if the merger does not go through.