Boston Globe Article Supports NextRadio

It's Wicked Cool

Readers of THE BOSTON GLOBE are being treated to coverage of NEXTRADIO this morning. In a positive article about the app from HIAWATHA BRAY, the paper writes, "Remember transistor radios? The kind that fit into a shirt pocket and ran on a 9-volt battery? No, they’re not obsolete. You may have used one of them today, to make a phone call," and explains to the general public, "most smartphones made today have plain old FM radios built inside, the kind that can tune in music stations, local news bulletins, and PATRIOTS games. However, many smartphone users don’t use them, and millions more can’t, because the radio is often disabled. APPLE’s iPHONES, for example, have their FM receivers turned off."

NEXTRADIO has been becoming popular, with ALL ACCESS reporting TUESDAY (NET NEWS 11/4), that SPRINT's "push notification" in OCTOBER once again did the trick for the NEXTRADIO app. In its latest post on its TAGSTATION blog, the push notification was sent to SPRINT customers’ phones and told them to check out NEXTRADIO. The result was spectacular: a new one-day record of app downloads with over 29,000 blew the previous record day out of the water with 44% more device registrations, 10% more stations accessed through the app, and 27% more unique users. With 10 times more new users than the previous week’s average, NEXTRADIO also broke into the top 10 free music apps offered in the GOOGLE PLAY STORE.

THE GLOBE notes, "How did an FM radio get into your smartphone? Phone makers found that adding the feature costs almost nothing. Outside the U.S., customers love it, especially in developing countries where FM is a zero-cost alternative to streaming digital music. FM radio is also an excellent way to get news updates during disasters, when cell systems are often overloaded. The FEDERAL EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT AGENCY has recommended FM-capable smartphones for keeping informed during a crisis."

BRAY concludes, "NEXTRADIO is FM radio made smarter, but can it compete with the Internet’s deep and diverse audio streams? Probably not. But until AT&T, T-MOBILE, and VERIZON end their irrational FM lockdown, most of us will never get to choose."

« see more Net News