Reporters Notebook

June 24, 2009 | Link This | Email this | Comments (0)

Sirius XM’s new iPhone App received more than 500,000 downloads in its first four days on the iTunes App Store according to an Orbitcast report quoting an internal Sirius memo.

 

While Sirius is not speaking publically on the veracity of the report, the Sirius app is now the third most popular free application on the iTunes App Store for all categories.

 

Analysts say it remains to be seen how popular the app, launched June 18, will become after users cycle through its 7-day free service trial. After that, users...Read More

June 18, 2009 | Link This | Email this | Comments (0)

Back in the old days, around when the iPhone first came out, the launch of a Sirius iPhone app would have caused panic in the car A/V retail business. But now, like the tree in the forest, it was barely heard falling.

 

Retailer business in satellite radio has fallen off so sharply in the past two years that the response to the Sirius XM iPhone app released Thursday was a rousing, “Eh. It might have some impact.”

 

On the plus side, it might drive an iPhone customer into a car A/V store so he can connect his phone or iPod Touch to his car radio, leading Car Toys merchandising senior VP Dan Jeancola to note, “There may be some increased demand … but, little impact overall....Read More

June 9, 2009 | Link This | Email this | Comments (0)

Dash Navigation — recently purchased by Research in Motion (RIM) — had an ace up its sleeve that might prove to be a boon to RIM beyond up-to-the-minute traffic reports.

Dash, as many know, spent eight months last year selling an Internet-connected personal navigation device (PND) that could track the road speed of its users and then create live traffic reports that were broadcast to other Dash users. Unfortunately, few retailers picked up the product, and it was pulled from the market.

But Dash was collecting more than just traffic information, as it turns out. It was creating live, up-to-the minute maps: live maps — ...Read More

Industries: Car Electronics

May 28, 2009 | Link This | Email this | Comments (1)

The word is out that Best Buy has broadened the role of Scott Hagen, its current director and merchant leader for home audio and video, to now include the post of director of mobile electronics, replacing Rob Cummins who left the company several weeks ago.

 

The reports are from suppliers. Best Buy has not responded to a TWICE inquiry on the matter.

 

That sigh of relief you hear is the 12-volt industry exhaling upon learning that the new director of mobile — meaning car electronics — is a known “hardware guy,” who is reasonably familiar with the category, as Best Buy, in the past has appointe...Read More

May 13, 2009 | Link This | Email this | Comments (0)

The TV ad wars are heating up between Apple and Microsoft, and with comedian John Hodgman at the center of all this, its turning out to be pretty entertaining.

 

Apple plays up the “no virus” aspect of a Mac in it is new “Get a Mac” ad called “Elimination.”

 

This was apparently an answer to Microsoft’s “Laptop Hunter” ads — not very funny, but possibly effective.

 

...Read More