It's nice to see that Sirius Satellite Radio is getting into the Internet delivery business with the sale of a new live portable receiver known as The Stiletto. Great name. Great device. Unfortunate timing. The hefty $349.99 price comes with the promise of listening by satellite or WiFi -- at home, in the car (kits sold separately -- ouch!) and the disappointment that you'll have to wait a long time before universal WiFi is available. The new device is intriguing. The SL 100 allows for 6 Hour Recording Blocks. Software updates can be done via WiFi connection allowing Mac and PC users to easily update without using a computer.The good news is that this satellite provider realizes that it must be in the Internet delivery business -- that's something more than a lot of terrestrial radio consolidators seem to know. The company has trademarked this non-satellite service as SIR -- Sirius Internet Radio. The future is on the Internet and will be delivered by mobile device. Satellite delivery is so -- 90's. Credit Sirius with getting it -- at least now. But Sirius can't do much about the massive infrastructure that it will take to make this world WiFi capable -- and that is the hang up.
Ironically, the company that developed the Stiletto -- Zing, was founded by former Microsoft and Apple developer Tim Bucher. Bucher has a lawsuit pending against Apple alleging wrongful termination by Steven Jobs among other things. Does this mean that Bucher has come back to bite Steven Jobs in the -- iPod? Not likely.
It's hard to know what Apple will do next, but word is that the next generation iPod will have enhanced video capability to better present movies that Apple will simultaneously sell -- likely for varying prices (Oh God, this means the record labels will go at it again to fight for variable pricing of music -- something that Jobs has refused in the past).
Nonetheless, this new Internet technology that Sirius is embracing shows why Steven Jobs is still the master in innovation, marketing and, yes -- timing. He's not likely to enter the world of WiFi until WiFi enters the world of more consumers. Satellite Radio has little option but to look beyond the bird and wait.
