Sirius XM to Release FREE iPhone Application
Today it was announced that the uSirius, Sirius XM application for the iPhone, had been rejected by the app. reviewers at Apple. The guys at Nicemac put up a release on their website earlier today that paints a pretty clear picture of what has recently happened.
Sirius XM has clearly moved to take action with Apple to block the release of arguably the most eagerly anticipated iPhone application ever. Now why would they do such a thing? The only possible answer is they have a free application which they developed in-house, that is most likely days away from being approved.
With the 4th quarter earnings and the March 11th price increase only days away, the excitement is so thick that you could cut it with a knife. The sly dog that is Sirius XM has had this in their back pocket all along but, one has to wonder why they have sat on such great news for so long now? Surely this company could not be so incompetent that they would move to block an application which could do nothing but add to their own bottom line without a plan of their own. Could they?
Is it possible that the management at Sirius is so frighteningly ignorant that they would get down on their knees and beg for a $530 million loan one day, only to block the only decent piece of new technology that could allow them to repay that loan the next?
For once, the answer is no. Sources very close to the situation have verified that an official Sirius XM iPhone application is in the works and will be released “very shortly.”
Since, for now, this is speculation, shouldn’t there be a “?” at the end of your headline??
Charles
Nothing in the Nicemac release said anything about Sirius blocking the Iphone App. Although I hope that your right on this one and a free app is coming soon! i still think ? at end of title, or rumor statement.
Agreed. I re-read this article to make sure I didn’t miss anything. Although you may be proven right, it’s irresponsible indicate a speculative rumor is fact.
Where does he state its fact? I have read the article twice, am I missing something?
He says “The only possible answer is they have a free application which they developed in-house, that is most likely hours away from being approved.”
Then says “Surely this company could not be so incompetent that they would move to block an application which could do nothing but add to their own bottom line without a plan of their own. Could they?”
Seems to me like he is saying that the only possible explanation is that they have an application ready to be approved OR Sirius XM is frighteningly inept for stopping the release of uSirius.
Roger
“Sirius XM has clearly moved to take action with Apple to block the release of argugable the most eagerly anticipated Iphone application” Where is this listed as fact. Not in Nicemac press release. Nothing by Sirius. If speculation, state as such. thats all I ask. Again, I hope Charles is right. But article is misleading.
The fact that Sirius XM blocked this app from being released IS FACT.
What their motives were in this article is sarcasm, speculation, and aggravation at their stupidity.
i feel the same way nathan
Mel you old dog you! Talk about waiting till the last minute for maximum impact. Yowza this is GOOD news. FINALLY.
Of course the media will find some negative way to spin this too. They’ll probably say “Too little too late” or something like that.
Gonna be an interesting week for sure.
Man, I’d love for this to be the beginning of the turning of the tide. Glad I averaged down so aggressively the last few weeks. 🙂
Said it before and it was removed…………….(not much to my liking BTW……..)
I’ll say it again right now !!!!!
SOMETHING BIG IS COMING?
From: SIRIUS Satellite Radio ([email protected])
Sent: Fri 2/27/09 5:19 PM
It only makes sense, a free app would attract many more subs then a $12 app
While I hope you are right, I don’t think NiceMac’s post was a smoking gun pointing to an official iPhone app.
There should be a big *RUMOR* disclaimer on the top of this article.
Really? You don’t think that if there were a bug and Apple rejected the application because of a bug that Nicemac would not have posted that a bug was found and they are working on it? It seems to me as though anyone of average intelligence should be able to see that Sirius XM blocked this release.
I got the same emails from both Sirius and XM.
Not sayin’ nuthin.
Looks good. Sounds good. But we all know what good means when it comes to Sirius….the media spins it to be bad.
I hope one of these days the momentum turns the other way, and Sirius stock isn’t so easily affected by the lamest negative spinsters out there. Until that time, I will remain ALWAYS cautiously optimistic….um or rather “cynically hopeful”???
Who knows with this stock. I’ve been excited so many times only to be disappointed. Now I am stuck with no way out but to keep averaging down. Yes…I still have hope I can re-coup some of my initial investment. Only time will tell.
“Hoping” this week’s rumor is true. 🙂
Friggin..SCRF..
Lets hope whatever it is, it drives up Sales!!!
vaporgold
http://www.orbitcast.com/archi.....oming.html
thats the only thing i could find on it i checked my email earlier and i didnt get anything
Even an iPhone app would have are hard time living up to the anticipation that SIRI XM has created with these emails. I am concerned that people’s imaginations will run wild and whatever it is they do have will be a let down, relatively speaking. I am saying this partly because I am so sick of being dissapointed by this company. I have been a subscriber and a shareholder for about 6 or 7 years, so you know what I’ve been through. At least its only a week we have to wait.
Even if you end up being correct….this will go down as the most ridiculous article ever published on SIRIUSBUZZ and has damaged the credibility of the website….NICE WORK!!!
I posted on orbitcast today that Mel was the best CEO. He truly is. He has had a terrible deck, but he is doing everything to get to 21. Let’s just say, the operations are an ACE… How many times can they take a hit before they get to 21? What is Mel holding in his hand, folks? Excitement is building on the street. Go MEL! I cast my CEO of the year vote!!!
I think MEL has something bigger than an iphone app though. I don’t think he would cheapen the brand by offering a free application. And I agree, speculation of a free app is quite over the top, and it isn’t that exciting anyway. I hope they have more going on than a stupid iphone app.
Can only agree with the general sentiment here. Unless Charles has access to some “inside” information that he can claim when this all becomes clear “within hours”, Charles just cost this site all of its credibility. Bizarre.
Hope you are right… and if you are, hope they do the guys right over at nicemac.
It is amazing to me that people don’t even read the entire article before they comment. Read past the title guys, its called sarcasm.
He is painting Sirius XM into a corner. Either they have a free app ready to go OR they have made a HUGE mistake by blocking this application.
I agree Roger, and hence the ‘credibility’ concerns are clearly over the top, and lend a sort of ‘spoiled child’ sense of condescension towards the author, especially if; we don’t get something ‘BIG’ out of this!
Roger
Where is it printed that Sirius blocked the iphone app? Total speculation and BS at this time until factual information is released!
In the more than four years that I have been investing in Sirius, there was only one time I was not disappointed. That was after the merger was approved after 18 mouths and we all know how that turned out. This company has just been one disappointment after another.
The radios should have been (still may be) interoperable. Subscribers should not have to buy a new radio to get the a la carte package. I don’t understand why on any satellite radio they can block certain channels, but for some mysterious reason you have to buy a new radio to get the a la carte package. Isn’t this package simply blocking access to other channels?
Sirius XM has the technology to offer the service for free, and bring in revenue by inserting advertisements into the streaming program. Why haven’t they begun to use this technology?
All Sirius XM has done is alienate their customers, raise subscription prices, reduce programming and give away 40% of the company at the shareholder’s expense. The only impressive thing Karmazin has done so far is to steal 40% (thus far…) of a publicly traded company out from under the shareholders.
Yeah, I’m not going to get too excited over this pending announcement.
First, it has been show through facts and logic (of what has happened so far) that the old radios were never interoperable. Second, While I do not know what the total capabilities SIRIXM has to be able to block 1, 2, 3, or more channels I dont think you do ether. Third do they have that technology to offer free radio that is more then likely. The only problem I see IS THE FCC. You do realize that there is a agreement the FCC has with SIRI/XMSR (and now SIRXM)that SIRIXM has to be a subscriber based company. Now how difficult would that agreement be to get out of, I dont know but neather do you. Finally, When did you ever have a company not raise its prices for 6 years, because with the exception of this company I cant think of one. Are you living in a rent free cave because by now every company must have alienated you. By the way I know because you are living in a cave it must have come as a surprize to you and you must not have heard them say at least a half dozen times (well before the merger was approved) that they planed on taking out what they thought was dublicated programming. Finally I do agree with your last point. The deal sucked, but on the bright side at least we did not get screwed as bad as the original investers did when they diluted the shit out of the stock in 2000. Now those guys have something to complain about.
OK..give the guy a break…a good article that obviously could have been written at a more kindergarten level so as not to misdirect those who did not understand the sarcasm….but I will help by pointing out that the application is not “free” at all…you paid for it in the price increase…and by the way, the “Price Increase Justifier” title on the iPhone app picture was a nice touch there Charles!
I have to say I found nothing that suggested SIRIXM blocked the product. It was up for approval by Apple not SIRIXM. Charles I dont know where you are getting that it was block by SIRIXM an explanation would help. Now while I could see your reason being a motive. I could also see Apple having its own motives for not approving it. Like maybe they would rather sell music through Itunes, then through SIRIXM.
Good job charles, now this is one speculative story I like. Leave that one up for a while please….at least until the “Big things coming” email is full realized.
thanks.
I WANT MY XMP3! I have the whole day planned around it Sunday, now i have to wait!!
Or there could be another twist maybe they are keeping the stock price down below a dollar so they will have a excuse to Reverse split the stock, look what has gone on, we all would have thought the stock would have been about 13 after the good new we had but look were it is with all the bashers, think about it. If mel doesnt have anything great coming up we really should think about what is going on at the top and i think i would be come more clear shortly
I would love to hear about a much lower priced everything plan and interoperable radios starting to show up in 2010 OEM’s later this year.
Article makes a few assumptions. But if those assumptions prove to be true, then you bet your sweet caboose this article is brilliant. IF!!!! Big chance posting this article. My guess is the site owner knows something, that makes it worth publishing, but agreed to word it in a way to not be misleading in any way, if not true. Which is always a chance.
Problem is relmor my friend, this article is based on supposition that SXM was involved in taking action to block the Nicemac application with Apple. What’s the source??? Where’s the proof?? This is now all over the Yahoo boards as though it were already fact… The author does no one any good with this kind of article.
Granted, even if proven true in the near term, posting this article under the sites Rumors thread would have been more appropriate…
As I posted before, it is not a supposition. It is fact. Just like the price increase that no one believed (I even had the exact day correct) and Bubba’s contract being renewed before it was made public.
I will not reveal my source but, I will tell you that I have multiple confirmations from people close to the situation.
Well Charles that is the kind of information that would be nice to know in the beginning or at the end of the article.
Screw em’ Charles. You don’t have to reveal anything or explain yourself an further. I found the article quite clear.
Charles,
Even though we’ve disagreed with each other and have argued relentlessly before, I think you’re “the man.”
Thanks for keeping us informed.
Oy Vey…………is this ‘getting good’ !!
Charles, I hope your right, but again nowhere in the article to you even quote from: “sources close to the matter”. I don’t argue that protecting your sources is important but state it then….
A simple statement would at least let us know that you didn’t pull it out of the air and when it turns out to be true we can further respect the info breaking here first as in the past…
Cos has a good point that anything published about SiriusXM just flys everywhere and all of a sudden becomes fact regardless especially on the yahoo board.
However, I will take you at your word I don’t think you would post unless you were positive about the information you received.You are not even close to the slam headlines put out by Motley and the Street.
My question to all my fellow posters is what does this mean for the bottom line of SiriusXm?
imho
Vaporgold
I’m buying that Charles will be right.
I’m not buying the stock. Sold on the Friday run up. Rang the register again. Thank you for whatever the reason was. See you on the next pullback.
wow charles you got me so confused, but with that last statement i am now clear. ty
SCRF… you are going to get you’re money back buying and selling if takes you 100 years I believe.
Way to go on the low and highs!!!!
I have aveeraged down as much as I can. I know if I sell it will take off and that will be the end…
vaporgold
Vapor my friend. LOL. I will have to trade for 100 years. Etrade should give me a gold card.
I read where you said if you bought more you would be living alone. Very funny.
Heres my take. Our financial markets are in a total mess. duh. The street hates Obama. They totally hate him. It’s just the way it is. Without upside buying overall, I don’t care if they make satellite radio play over baby monitors. Stocks are completely trashed on all levels right now.
And I can’t see this changing for as far as I can see. So I am going to play this penny flipping stock just like Cos described and pay the bills.
I think we have several more opportunities to keep on ringing the register in the near future. That being said however, if we hit a big snag, in the May debt, I hope it happens when I’m out.
Good to see you Vapor.
Relmor is no friend. He’s a pumper who has zero class. And that’s a fact.
socal….
I, like you sold 2/3 of my position into the rally Friday. If they file for a 10K extension, while waiting for KPMG to grant the “going concern” contingency in the Malone deal, I think it will be scene as negative catalyst after a very flat week of trading… We’ll see an good luck…
I’ve followed and debated relmor for months and he is just hopeful……
that’s seen not scene…. with all the drama it will be the next…. scene to this story….LOL
Could this explain the last minute price pop on Friday to .16 a 23% gain? Charles I hope your speculation is not just hope.
Why would Apple want to partner with a near bankrupt company
if there is a possibility that it would tarnish the APPLE image?
Makes me want to believe that Jobs knows more than we do.
But as usual with Sirius, who knows what to believe.
Jobs DOES know more than we do . . . I mean should think so, being the CEO of one of the most successful companies in the current market. The question is does Charles?
Also, I wouldn’t assume that this app could potentially tarnish Apple in anyway. It’s basically guaranteed to be and instant success given the large interest among current subscribers, and it should garner some measurable amount of new subs. I beleive the issue right now is who gets what?
Job’s unfortunate bout w/Pancreatic Ca. and the obvious ‘hormonal imbalances’ that a dying pancreas causes is likely to be more ‘tarnishing’, from a cold hard business stance, to the image of Apple,than an affiliation with ‘us’. That being said I take no pleasure in his plight and only wish him, his family and his business, great success and health.
But one must not disregard the likes of Malone and his nether image, Ergen, also ‘tricky Mel’ (as Cramer calls him) brings his own ‘bag of tricks’………..This isn’t all about Apple, and remember that their own stock price has tanked from an all time high if I remember correctly in the $180’s to where it is now…………I’m sure we all can ‘get high, with a little help from my friends’…….Today!!
XM blocked it because they’re trying to create their own. Since XM is way behind StarPlayr, they decided to pull some strings, sent a complaint for infringing on their content and trademarks, and whined. An employee at XM Radio told me what has going on.
Wouldn’t it make more sense just to partner with nicemac, buy the rights or come to a revenue share agreement than to dismiss an app that is ready for a hungry marketplace?
Why continue to spend R & D money on an already existing product or service? It seems to me that the guys at nicemac did Sirius XM a favor. This app will increase subscriptions and revenue to the company, starting right now, and yet the company had no interest until a lot of man hours led to the eve of approval. Then suddenly, they want to stop it.
I’m no lawyer, but seeing as nicemac has an existing platform, Sirius XM would now be guilty of some sort of patent or copyright infringement. Sirius XM should be kissing nicemac ass right about now.
Not if they were feverishly working on their own app, only to lose the race!!
I’d block it to then…………
Nice Graphic Text: “Price Increase Justifier”
version 1.0 released: 3-11-2009
Could mobitv be working with Sirius XM and DTV to devlope a mobile phone application already???
the other scenario may be that Sirius XM joined forces with Nicemac in some way. If you read the latest post by Nicemac developer GOODTIME on this thread:
it certainly looks like there is something going on Nicemac would like to, but can’t yet reveal…
Mel has to be frustrated. He is a very good operator. He is known for building and selling…at top dollar. I think he realizes he needs a big bang with the earnings announcement. He knows Goldman bet against him and won big. I think they may finally be out of the picture unless they bought the bank loans. Mel needs to announce a solid quarter. ( 50-50 shot)..Mel needs to announce bank financing done. ( 60% chance)Mel needs to announce conversion rate stable ( 40% chance ) Mel needs to announce Apple deal ( 80% chance) Mel needs to announce guidence of 2009 free cash flow of 250 million. ( 80% chance) Mel needs to announce 2 year guidence of at least 4 million new subs ( 80% chance ) Mel needs to announce cash balance of at least 300 million. ( 80% chance ) If he hits them all or at least 80% with the inclusion of bank financing rolled over we have a chance of 50 cent stock at year end..( before any reverse split)
If he/’we’ hit all this, I’d gather we’d be at a considerably higher PPS than jus ’50 Cent’!!!
300% is more than anyone could hope for in this market.
I have no actual knowledge, but didn’t the press releases and stories of the last few days say something to the effect that Apple was not approving Nicemac’s application at the current time?
So, if that is correct, it would stand to reason that, if Sirius XM has their own application, Sirius XM will be “approved” first, followed by the possible approval of Nicemac (or any other players who arrive on the scene).
Anyone have any knowledge or ideas on this possible scenario?
Hope this all gets worked out!
Thanks for the heads-up Charles! Your statements always seem to be accurate. I hope that SiriusXM does release a free app. This will remove any cost impediment to folks considering the extra monthly fee, but may not want to have to pay any additional fees.
At the same time, I have purchased the Starplayr product for my WinMobile 3G BlackJack 2 from NiceMac and I love it! It is quite possible that the NiceMac app is a superior product and would be viewed as a premium worth the extra $$ This scenario would be a WIN/WIN for both products and provide a choice for potential mobile subscribers…
Looking at the volume & share price on Friday is interesting. In the last 15 minutes of trading almost 28 million shares were traded and within that same period of time the stock price went from about .138 to .16. What makes that even a little more interesting is that for 6hrs. & 45 minutes the volume for the day was @ about 38 million shares traded. So 40% of the volume of shares traded happened in the last 15 minutes. Did someone who knew something throw down a million on SIRI? If u take the normal volume thru out the day & subtract that out (of the last 15 min.)u have about a million dollars worth of shares. Of course I’m hoping it’s a positive sign of some good news coming soon. Maybe Monday? Let’s hope Charles is in charge!
This is charels way to get back at the negative posts for the slacker giveaway article. I’m Italian I know these things.
You lost me. What’s your point? R U saying he’s digging himself a deeper hole?
SOMETHING BIG IS COMING?
From: SIRIUS Satellite Radio ([email protected])
Sent: Fri 2/27/09 5:19 PM
Let’s see, after all this stock has been heralded as a ‘lottery’ ticket by much more sophisticated investors’ than many of us here……………
At this point with the staggering loses of most investors who went long this stock (foolishly or not) what’s another several thousand dollars in order to cost average to pennies, and then possibly pull a save, if not more, in the good-ole- Last-Minute Tradition of Tricky Mel !!
We are already toast if it fails, however, strategically place a few more dollars at risk and you may laugh all the way to the Bank………….. (If it’s still there!!)
if right, you scored a coup again, if not, you got egg on your face….obviously, I hope it’s the former.
I get Sirius online through Starplayr for free. I’ve contacted sirius and they confirmed my account is closed and are looking into the problem. I can prove this and would be happy to demonstrate! This application is FLAWED!
“They found a way to hack it!”
Looks like orbitcast is about 3 days late to this party. Nice job Charles.
Confirmation of iPhone app now appearing on Orbitcast
Are we sure that this new version is not the same one NiceMac developed? Maybe Sirius is buying them out?
I love how Orbitcast is necessary to confirm my post which was made 3 days ago.
My source says there were 2 distinctly different applications.
It’s because everybody knows your really a Slacker fan:)
why is it that other sites have it confirmed and not u
How did I not confirm it? I am the one who broke the story 3 days ago. Did you think I was speculating?
so are there gonna be 2 different Apps Sirius XM and Starplayr
I’m curious as to the sources. We’ve been hearing about the othe player for almost a year, and nothing about an app from Sirius XM themselves.
And even if they do have their own app in the works, why stop NiceMac’s app from coming out? Why not give people a choice of which app they want. There ae at least a dozen iPhone apps for AIM and you don’t see AOL trying to stop it. Perhaps NiceMac’s app will have features I like better and I’d be willing to pay for it. More ways to listen to Satellite Radio can only be a good thing.
Once again, Sirius XM has made a horrible business decision. I feel the day coming soon where my main sources of entertainment, O&A and Howard Stern, will no longer be available. Very sad.
We have all been duped. There is no app coming (from anyone). Sirius would have said something by now and it’s a huge bunch of nothing. If they continue to play these games with the customers, and investors, they will fail.
It’s called respect, and I have had it!
I’m really starting to wonder about apple. How can this be good for the consumer? Even with Sirius/XM coming out with an app maybe??? Why block one that is here now. I’ve gotta say I’m frustrated.
Wow this has been quite the love/hate fest, waiting game. Let’s hope this all ends on a positive note. (a real, working, released to the public Sirius XM app)
It kinda makes sense, the guys at Nicemac wanted to charge $12.99 for their Starplayr app. It makes sense for Apple to reject that application for Sirius/XM to put out their offical app out first (for free). I assume alternate satellite radio apps would soon follow.
Get it done already!!!
Well I am grateful that Sirius finally got their act together so I can access SiriusXM from my iPhone through “Pocket Tunes”.
But could they have made the interface any more clunky?
Come on guys, first thing you need to know if you want to be successful in the on-line world is you got to make a user-friendly interface… If I wasn’t such a statesman I would say the interface stinks, but let’s just say it needs a lot of work.
The StarPlayr interface (before Sirius was so kind to shut down for this work of art)was significantly more user friendly. I hope you guys consider on moving to a better interface in the future, but I guess this will do for now.
Sirius XM had nothing to do with this application.
The app will be here sooner or later.
The bottom line: it’s over a year late. It boggles my mind how a few Sirius/XM fans over at Nicemac were ready to release the app before Mel Karmazin’s team and then for them to squash the deal?! I’d call for Mel to be fired, but it really doesn’t matter: satellite radio is dying and the captain will go down with the ship.
Howard Stern will not resign with Sirius, but create his own app or form a partnership with a service like Pandora to stream his show to mobile devices. Pandora already has a great footprint on mobile devices: http://www.pandora.com/on-the-go
Radio will make a comeback in 2010 and beyond. All thanks to the internet and mobile networks.