Motorolla Releases the iRadio Phone

Forget all this talk about the next iTunes phone, Motorola is going for something bigger: radio. Announced at CES, Motorola is showing off this new service that allows subscribers to listen to one of 435 commercial-free radio channels on either their Bluetooth headset, radio, or home stereo. “Motorola iRadio is truly a revolution in digital radio — offering more choice, higher audio quality than satellite radio, and features that allow listeners to identify and purchase the music they like,” Mike Gaumond, vice president and general manager, Motorola Digital Media Services, boldly claims. I don’t know how the boys (and girls) at XM or Sirius will take to that comment, but I know from my use of Bluetooth, “high quality audio” usually isn’t something that comes to mind. I’ll have to confirm this at CES this week. The service will work on up coming Moto phones such as the ROKR E2.

Clear Channel will be providing much of the content for Moto’s new service. Some of the “stations” will include 40 different types of music such as Rock, Metal, Classic Rock, 12 different Jazz offerings, individual artist channels, genre channels covering every decade of the 1900’s, and specialty channels such as “1 Hit Wonders”.

Accessories will be available for connecting car stereos to your iRadio phone upon release. There is no pricing or carrier information available at this time.

[tags]motorola,e2,rork,iradio[/tags]