Its Time for SiriusXM to Get Serious About Hardware
In this guest post, Scott Spiegel shares his thoughts on the state of Sirius XM hardware.
One of the most exciting prospects of the SiriusXM merger was that subscribers would get the incredible service that is Sirius… combined with the far superior equipment that XM had been offering for years. This has happened, but unfortunately, in the half-year since approval was finally given, all we’ve gotten from the newly merged company is ONE interoperable device. I’m not even really sure why anyone would ever need an interoperable device, seeing that anyone can get the “best of” packages from each service.
Even beyond that, it’s disappointing that over a year ago, a friend showed me a Garmin GPS that he’d bought that doubled as his XM receiver. It was clunky with it’s menu, but it worked decently. Since then, there hasn’t been any advancement. The in-dash Kenwood receiver I bought last week has an IPod adapter, a USB port, a DVD player, and capabilities to receive live TV. Despite all these features, one aspect is severely lacking… the Sirius operating system is awful. It won’t pause, it doesn’t save favorite artists/songs, and the navigation of channels is not the least bit user-friendly. Of course, poor software on a Kenwood receiver isn’t necessarily the company’s fault, but with all the competition for audio entertainment out there, I find it ridiculous that SiriusXM doesn’t mandate that every piece of equipment sold, have each of the previously mentioned features, plus more.
Inside the 36th and 37th floors of the McGraw-Hill building in New York (Sirius’ NYC headquarters), the offices are filled with people with a true passion for providing the best possible radio for subscribers. Most employees are underpaid and work long hours, but they do so happily because they would give anything to see it succeed. My worry is that the longer SiriusXM goes without knock your socks off equipment, the less likely employees will be able to keep up with the heavy workload. What’s the point of all the sacrifice if they begin to feel that the service is no longer superior.
A soon-to-be-released IPhone application is a small step in the right direction, but it’s nowhere near the giant leap needed to lure new customers. Gear that doesn’t cut short on the coolness factor is what will entice new people to subscribe. SiriusXM should partner with innovative companies that can integrate all of the best features into future receivers. Money should be spent on research and development of this new equipment rather than on signing C-list celebrities like Bobby Flay to program their own channels.
Scott Spiegel is a freelance writer based out of Houston, you can learn more about him at Scottyspiegel.com
i agree-Ive thought that some dazzling products would come by now or at least be announced—Unfortunately it takes awhile to bring out a new receiver–from initial design, to testing, fcc approval etc.
I have a gut feeling that almost everything has been put on hold until they get the refinancing thing past them–as Mel has gone to a bear bones budget to save monies and create a positive cash flow that the lenders can feel comfortable with-that affects the new r&d, plus new products–Partners may not want to commit until they feel the company will be around for the long term-It may work, but the lag time might hurt them when it comes to the 2009 Xmas season
Charles, I applaud Mel… Sirius is a Media company, and I believe they should focus on what they do best — content.
Mel is a pro, and digital convergence is an ongoing theme. The technology platform of the future will probably not even resemble the ipod for all we know. But content will ALWAYS reflect the consumer, and Sirius has done a phenomenal job of that. You will have those that argue with that statement, but the majority of subscribers love Sirius and many are hooked.
Props to Mel and Company for running a company, not a stock. We need more legitimacy on wall st.
The coolness factor is what i have been preaching for sometime now. SiriusXm has a good product. They have good service and support. They just need the hardware to match the product. Thats been their problem for some time now. My guess is they cant really afford an arm and a leg to R and D newer stylish equipment right now. They have to focus to much on survival.
The coolest gadget out there is the iphone. I feel that the new app for the iphone has the potential to turn people on to siriusXm. I have a kenwood in my car with sirius and ive been happy with it but i do agree the OS for it is lacking.
If siriusXm can lay this debt issue to rest and get the company turning in some positive cash flow its certainly time for them to stop producing such ugly/unstylish receivers and start putting something on the market that the cool kids have to have.
If they have to they can work with bose or someone on a speaker setup and maybe even apple for a gadget design. They should be trying to get EVERYONE that has a mobile phone or device signed up for siriusXm service. Id call the service SiriusXm mobile and would charge 3.99 for the first 5 million customers on it. If we got 5 million subs on it as a bonus id lower the price to 2.99 and if we got 10 million on it id lower it to 1.99. After that 15 million and users would pay .99 cents.
Give people a reason to get everyone involved is my point here.
SiriusXm mobile would be a mobile device option only. You cannot get that service for your car or home. I think that customized channels would also be another path i would explore for the serive. If siriusXM would put some of these ideas to use they can create positive revenue, have cool products and in the end we are all happy campers.
I have found their hardware to be so unappealing that I will not buy a Sirius XM Radio that is not already factory installed.
uSirius StarPlayr works well enough in my Civic Hybrid via the Aux jack. No need to buy an extra radio for me.
Holy crap, what do you people want? I say that because first what do I see people pissing and moaning about things not happening fast enough on the financial side ONLY 2 MONTHs after the merger. Now what do I hear, where is the combined technology. My god it takes alot longer then 6 months to develope, fine tune, and get approvals, before finally getting something to market. By the way dont even bring up the interoperable radio. That has been in the works for alot longer then 6 months. As you recall there is a company that both SIRI and XMSR had that was in charge of that. That company had access to both kinds of tech.
StarPlayr for Windows was the 1st interoperable software player created by a third party. It took 1 day.
Now why dont you ask MSFT howlong it took to come up with Windows 98, or Windows XP. Now as an example you yourself have come up with a product for Apple and SIRIXM yet since your release of the news it has still not been approved by Apple yet. Now how much longer is that going to take. I mean come on already you already released the news, it should already be avaible to the public today. I am only using your estimate. It has already been over a day already.
I am not sure you can compare an operating system to a radio. I know they can make an entire car in less then a year so, it should take substantially less time to create the radio that goes in that car.
That is up to Apple and the AppStore approval. Not us. It is officially out of our hands. 300 beta testers have the preview release. It should not be much longer but from what I heard AppStore approvals can take anywhere a week to a month.
Please direct your inquiry to Apple what the status is of the AppStore Approval.
Thank you,
Todd
Hey Todd, do you have a link to help with the effort. Good luck in any event.
How long has it taken for the volt. By the way, The Viper is a perfect example of why it takes much longer then a year to just go from concept to being real. That car was the shortest in the companys history to go from concept to reality and it took just over a year.
You’re right John, it should take years to develop a new radio.
Once again Charles you lose your grasp on reality and have to try self exaggerate other peoples comments. Charles I will bring you back down to earth. There is a difference between months and years.
Thanks for “bringing me back down to Earth,” I don’t know what I would do without you.
OK… I will try this… how long should we have to wait? How long should it take? It is clear you need to have the last word even though I make valid points so, I thought it would just be simpler to agree with you.
Your whole point was that it takes time and that 6 months is not long enough… so I said years… how long should it take John? It’s been 3 years and I have still not been WOWed by anything they have done.
Again, they come out with an entirely new car model each and every year, how long should it take to make the radio which is placed into said car?
Charles, Once again I bring the Volt up while new styles of the same models come out every year (by the way those new styles are worked on for years before, I have a friend that was working on the transmission for the 2007 F-150, BACK IN 2005) they dont come out with a totally new model each and every year. Hence why it takes 3 and 4 years for Ford & GM to get a new type of hybrid out. Also to my knowledge they did not have their hands tied for a last year and a half waiting for a merger. I say give them at least 9 months to a year after the merger, and the same gos for the companies actions on all the rest.
I guess we simply have to agree to disagree.
I think radios should take far less time to create the a car and I as I said before, I would hope that they would have been creating these radios all along. They should have a version of the stiletto 3 ready to go with 4 and 5 in the works.
Based on what I have heard from insiders… this is not the case.
I think people here often forget that there are fans of this service that are not shareholders… they don’t care about nor do they even know about financing issues.
None of their hardware is great and some of the factory installed stuff has sub par user interfaces.
No where does Sirius XM offer a great user experience, other then the actual content.
Charles I dont care if people are shareholders or not. You still should have enough common sense to know that it takes longer then 6 months to come out with a totally new product.
You don’t think they could have been developing new products ahead of time (09 cars are released in 08)? If all research and new product production completely stopped until the merger was approved, this company is in HUGE trouble. Companies develop new products and make last minute changes to add functionality all the time.
Charles, this is the first time they have been combined. I dont think they even want to think seperatly on anything anymore. I personally think every radio that comes out from this point on should be interoperable.
For what it’s worth. If you are using a sirius radio that doesn’t have playback or fav. artist(a couple examples)it’s a whole differant experiance. These little extras are huge. I agree that SRX should mandate that all radios offer some of these items as a must. If I didn’t have these two items it would be a lot less fun having SatRad. I wonder how many subs that never had those options cancelled their subs? SRX needs every tool in the shed to make to give the listener the greatest experiance possible.
The current hardware is fine. Sirius should have bandwidth to improve the quality of music channels though. Overall though, I don’t think this is a problem Sirius XM needs to be focused on right now.
In order of importance:
1. Refinancing of Debt.
2. More Exclusive Content
3. Big Deal Partnership (with Apple or Microsoft).
4. 3 or 4 free channels with limited comercial sponsorship.
5. Expanded delivery channels (Internet, Etc.)
6. New Hardware.
JamesPD, I agree with your concise list, although I would put debt restructuring as your top 3. I think the 3 or 4 free channels, with limited commercials is a great way to get all those chipsets installed in cars, but turned off, working for the company. This might be a way to introduce channel sponsorship as Neal Barkett has proposed in the past, with a few subscriber offers thrown in a long the way…
As far as the state of Sirius Xm hardware, the interoperable radio is the fulfillment of an FCC Mandated requirement for maintaining their license. I hope there is only one and it is slowly made obsolete by unified programming and better technology and software. The two chipsets make the unit larger than necessary and take up precious room that other features could be utilizing.
The author’s article tries to paint Sirius Xm as a hardware company that needs to get serious. He then chose to buy the Kenwood in dash unit, berates Sirius Xm for the lack of a user friendly operating system, equipped with cool record your favorite artist features, and then forgives them for not being the developers of this software and hence responsible for his poor choice in hardware manufacturers.
He then goes on to speak of all those NY headquartered, passionate, underpaid, and overworked employees, striving and praying for Sirius Xm’s success, that will be demoralized if Sirius doesn’t develop “Knock your socks off” equipment. Please…. They are in NY developing and producing the “Knock Your Socks Off Content” that will be played on many platforms, eventually bringing the company the success that they are working so hard for.
It is up to hardware and software developers, competing to provide the very best content, at the right price points, to work with the Sirius Xm to get the best hardware and software into consumer’s hands. Sirius Xm is not a Hardware or Software company. While they certainly can assist in the development of Cool Players, it is dependent on the manufacturer’s survival to make the equipment, cool and user friendly.
They are a media company, whose hardware component is in Broadcasting Content through their satellite network and internet feeds. Let Audiovox, Apple, NiceMac LLc with their Starplayr, and other innovative Hardware/Software development companies, make the Knock your socks off hardware and compatible software.
Sirius XM needs to develop the very best in content, delivered in a variety of ways over many platforms, Live, In Concert, Recorded, On the Internet, while On Campus, at work, in your car, at home and around the world (internet). They need to find a way to generate revenue for their content while pushing the very best hardware and software delivery systems.
You get the picture. Making cool hardware is not their business….. but they can partner with the very best company’s that do..
You really don’t think that Sirius XM has any say in their hardware and software? They are directly responsible for all of that stuff and should not allow their name to be placed on a product that they do not approve.
They can make the best content in the world but if they don’t compel people to use their service, they have failed.
The level of denial by some of the shareholders who frequent this site is mind boggling.
What’s mind boggling to me is that you think that my comments reflect some sort of denial. My point is not that they don’t have to work with software and hardware manufacturers to develop innovative products and then to compel consumers to use them, but without the content that they do have to develop directly, even the coolest products will go unused.
As far as development of new products go, it is a case of the chicken and the egg and which should come first. Programming development or heavy investment into hardware delivery systems. It is unclear to me, and I welcome any insight you may have, what direction the channel line up is going to go in. Which should come first, a single channel lineup of the very best programming, or the development of the very best hardware / software delivery system.
With “open access” to all manufacturers as an FCC license mandate, what options do they have? Licensing manufacturing of products to carry their logo still opens them up to a menagerie of hardware companies meeting many audio entertainment needs. The Kenwood player in the article comes to mind. The one thing that the have the most control over is their Content and that should be their primary focus at this point in their corporate maturity, IMO. The Internet may be the ultimate solution for them with a wider, worldwide geography. Only time will tell.
My comment was to the entire site and not you in particular. People certainly have blinders on.
I agree and I would argue that their content is already great and has been for quite some time… so lets get cracking on the kind of product that people are proud to show off to their friends and that kids wait in line to buy.
In all honesty Charles my blinders came off as I watched the stock price drop 95%. I am a fan and subscriber of their content and hope they can soon be more creative and compelling in their message, while teaming up with great product and software developers to line up those kids.
I agree with Zach. If you have the content they will come. Eventually, after they get on solid ground, why not one radio for both signals, with totally different programming. And the capability to mix and match from either platforms. Double the choices. A smart radio (computer) that can add real functionality. But first they have to survive. Go Mel. Some of still believe in you.
My point on SatRad radios as far as SRX is concerned is that a few basic options should be on all standard radios. Cos1000 I get your point that they are not the radio harware producers, but if I don’t have access to as much content that is being offered that appeals to me when I’m listening then all parties lose (fav. artist/song option & playback).These 2 options directly go hand in hand with the access to content. This is what blows away terrestial radio on the equipment options side of the game. If SRX doesn’t flex their muscle w/ these basic issues (w/the radio manufactors)they are going to keep having radios out there that don’t do the content the justice it deserves.
Neal, I don’t disagree that more innovative devices are need to enhance the experience. The problem the company has that is not being acknowledged it that they made a promise to provide for all of their legacy radios and subscribers. The “nothing will change” promise has already been stretched with the programming changes. Trying to meet all of their commitments while putting out, in partnership with their manufacturers new and innovative products has a cost. That cost is speed to market for new products.
I would think their next retail event is Father’s day, and new products should show with all the bells and whistles. At this point, managing broadcast platforms to take care of their commitment to legacy subscribers is as important to manage as getting the new gadgets out to new subscribers. At point down the road legacy issues will be managed with equipment upgrades offering the value added features to satisfied legacy users who have been their solid base and focus for current revenue generating programs.
This article is the perfect example of damage that the NAB/FCC has inflicted on SIRI/XM.
While Mel and company were busy fighting tooth and nail to get the merger complete, R@D became a casualty of war, because neither one of the companies knew what would eventually happen.
And now, here were are!!
Thanks go to: NAB/FCC/Cramer/and everyone out there that spent money they did not have!!