On March 21 Delphi issued a press release that I saw mentioned over at The Auto Channel. It at first sounded like a normal press release about a new radio being released by Delphi, but reading through it an item caught my eye. That was "It can be equipped with digital satellite radio reception from either of the two North American satellite radio companies."

The radio is generally designed for commercial vehicles and Delphi even went to professional drivers and found what they wanted and needed. So the new radio has ergonomic controls and rugged materials for better wear. They also worked on reducing mass on the radio and thereby reducing costs of the unit. And the unit does just do Satellite radio, it has CD/MP3 player as well as AM/FM and NOAA. And it can also charge and play an iPod as well. This is a full featured unit even has an alarm clock in it.

[via The Auto Channel]

We have had some SIRIUS S50 portable device coverage here in the past including Kevin Tofel's post on the last minute changes they made in response to RIAA intervention, and now we got news of an agreement concerning the device. SIRIUS and Universal Music Group have reached an agreement over the S50's ability to separate individual songs from the satellite stream into individual MP3 files.

Music industry leaders were concerned that the ability to save songs individually was a lost chance at being able to sell that song. The music industry wants their money and felt they should be getting paid for these lost sale opportunities. Record labels had threatened to sue SIRIUS over the S50 device for copyright violations. Back in December an agreement was reached to extend the deadline to work out the final deal.

The final details are not known, but it seem that SIRIUS will be compensating Universal Music Group and avoiding any legal proceedings. These charges are not going to be passed onto the SIRIUS subscribers. This deal is expected to serve as a basis for similar deals with other record companies, and since the current deal only covers the S50, most likely it will also be used as the template for other devices in the future.

Over at Forbes.com, they are reporting on information from research firm RBC Capital Markets, that issued a client note on XM that reiterated its "Outperform" rating on XM stock. But the big item that is discussed is that the analyst thinks there will be three distribution channels in three years. Those three channels are OEM, aftermarket and cell phone operators. The analyst thinks that XM should sign a deal with a cell phone operator, and that the technology hurdles will be overcome to allow good integration with XM and cell phones.

Do you think satellite radio and cell phone should be integrated?

According to consumer goods VP Ralph Etna, three desktop radios marketed under the Audiovox brand will be the first round of products with on-chassis slots for the Passport tuner cartridge. The three products, all due in late May or early June, are a mono table radio, stereo CD-radio and DVD/CD stereo radio.

The Passport tuner module is a small (under 1.5 inches square and less than half an inch thick) device that is designed to allow listening to XM radio on many devices but the cost of only one subscription. The Passport has a suggested $29.99 price making it affordable, but it still requires separate purchase of antenna. There are also home and docking stations for the Passport to connect to XM Connect And Play devices.

Audiovox's list of upcoming Passport ready devices, includes thee Desktop radios which all include top loading slots for the Passport tuner. The three have varying options starting with a $119 MSRP simple one with basic clock radio functions; a midline unit that adds CD drive that handles MP3 and WMA files at $229 MSRP; and the third moves up to a full media center with a DVD drive, 5.1 sound, and USB 1.1 port to stream files that comes in at a MSRP of $349.

There will also be a $115 SRP microsystem that will have a front loading slot for the Passport module, AM/FM tuner, speakers, and remote for the "book shelf system" applications an a boombox system that features AM/FM/CD/Tape. Both of these units are scheduled to arrive in June/July.

Some of the more interesting devices coming are: the under cabinet TV models, which will have three different levels of features; and two portable GPS navigation systems that also can act as media players supporting video (MPEG-4), audio (WMA/MP3) and graphic (JPG) files as well as hard drives and touch screen interfaces. There will also be some Audiovox car stereo head units that will have support for passport docking stations later in the year, and following those will be head units with the slots built right into the front side.

Which of these products do you find the most interesting integration of satellite radio?