Satellite radio receivers for the home are expected later next year. The programming will cover just about every musical genre, as well as news, sports and talk. Many of the channels will be commercial-free. That third factor, low-cost and compact storage, could have a banner year in 2001. So far digital audio players have been expensive, largely because of the cost of flash memory, a storage medium used in digital cameras, cell phones, handheld computers and other devices, as well as digital audio players.
Flash memory is often the single most costly component in a digital audio player.
DataPlay CEO Steven Volk said three major music labels will have prerecorded content on DataPlay discs at launch, and he is pushing to get the Billboard 200 on the medium. The company is MobileAria. Think of this as the sequel to OnStar, the concierge-style service available in 34 General Motors vehicles. The first difference is that voice-activated MobileAria can be installed in just about any automobile. It works through Delphi's Communiport Mobile Productivity Center, a unit that draws power from the cigarette lighter and uses a cell phone to access the Internet.