Motorola Set to Unveil iRadio for Cell Phones

Now this has the potential to be pretty cool! Assuming the rates are not out of this world, the idea of iRadio from Motorola does appear to have some really moxy to it!

Motorola Inc. (NYSE:MOT - news) is betting consumers will pay to have it both ways, gaining control over the content on their car radios and the flexibility of taking their music with them on their cell phones when they turn off their engines.

Motorola, the No. 2 maker of mobile telephones, is set to unveil a service called iRadio that will let users download preselected audio content from a range of providers on their home computers, dump it on their cell phones and listen to it on their car stereos.

The company is banking on the popularity of portable music underscored by sales of Apple Computer Inc.’s (Nasdaq:AAPL - news) iPod digital music players and growing demand for high-quality, commercial-free radio provided by satellite radio companies Sirius Satellite Radio Inc. (Nasdaq:SIRI - news) and XM Satellite Radio Holdings Inc. (Nasdaq:XMSR - news)

“What we set out to solve was finding a way to get the breadth of content into the stereo where people listen,” said David Ulmer, director of marketing for Motorola’s media solutions business. “We looked around and noticed that everyone had a cell phone in their pocket. There is a very large market of potential customers to go after.” [Read the rest]