14 replies to this topic

[laurie]

Quote

AAP

Sales of digital radios in Australia have risen by more than 60 per cent, new figures show.

Australians bought 88,004 digital radios in the first quarter of calendar 2012, according to a GfK Marketscope report released by Commercial Radio Australia on Sunday.

This was up 63 per cent from 53,996 digital radios sold in the prior corresponding period, Commercial Radio Australia said in a statement on Sunday.

"The industry is very pleased with the take-up of digital radio," Commercial Radio Australia chief executive Joan Warner said in the statement.

"Although discretionary retail spending seems to be down, digital radios are affordable and continue to sell well."

Australians had bought 833,320 digital radios since they were launched in 2009, Commercial Radio Australia said.  

link to story:http://www.businessspectator.com.au/bs.nsf/Article/Digital-radio-sales-reach-833320-U98RT?OpenDocument&src=hp17

cheers laurie

[alanh]

Laurie,
The full report is on www.digitalradioplus.com.au and has been there since it was released.

AlanH

[dbrmuz]

alanh, on 14 May 2012 - 03:20 AM, said:

Laurie,
The full report is on www.digitalradioplus.com.au and has been there since it was released.

AlanH

Yes,and we all know that that particular site has no bias what-so-ever!
Cheers as always for all you help A.H.

[mgaleano]

I think the future of digital radio is tune in radio on your iPhone or android device. I hear a lot of people talking about it. As data plans go up on mobile phones it may take over. It's still tricky to get a plugin for your phone for dab+. I don't mind dab+ as I am in a good reception area. However realistically I dont see it being successful against the market dominance of the smart phone. The infrastructure is already there. With Dab/DMb someone needs to pay for the roll out in the other regional cities/ towns who are yet to be enabled. Why bother when tune in radio is here.

Edited by mgaleano, 27 May 2012 - 06:10 PM.

[Slattery]

Agrees. Tune in Radio is simple to install and use and uses minimal data.

[alanh]

What happens in Australia in DAB+ for receivers is now irrelevant. What matters is that large parts of the 500 Million European market does. Now that Germany, France, Scandanavia and other European countries have now rolled out DAB+, and the phone only needs a single DAB+ receiver chip it will be included in smart phones. It is already available in some Nokia phones.

Remember its free to listen, no data charges.

AlanH

[Malich]

alanh, on 04 June 2012 - 03:18 AM, said:

... and the phone only needs a single DAB+ receiver chip it will be included in smart phones. It is already available in some Nokia phones.

I'm genuinely curious - what model Nokias have DAB+ included in the phone? Because all I can find world-wide is headsets which have the DAB+ receiver built into the headset, controlled by software running on the phone.

[alanh]

You had better look harder, it was released last year in Europe. It's not available in Australia

AlanH

[Malich]

When I say "I'm genuinely curious", I'm not being sarcastic, preparing to set you up for a fall, or acting with any other sort of malicious intent - I am genuinely curious to know if such a Nokia phone currently exists.

As I said, I searched world-wide (not just Australia) and couldn't find one. If you could provide a link it would be much appreciated.

Edited by Malich, 04 June 2012 - 03:26 PM.

[Malich]

OK, to bring things back here from the other thread...

cwt, on 06 June 2012 - 05:18 PM, said:

Even if it wasnt an app you download and was a built in component mate it probably would need the lead to act as the aerial [if as you say it exists at all; doubtful for sure]

Which is also necessary for built-in FM receivers anyway, so that's not a limitation unique to DAB.

alanh, on 07 June 2012 - 01:43 AM, said:

Malich,
I posted the link on this site last year. Look for yourself

I did. Searching the forum for all posts from you containing "Nokia" and "DAB", in the period Jan 1 2010 to Jun 7 2012, returns 3 posts - the one in this thread where you state "... a single DAB+ receiver chip ... is already available in some Nokia phones.", a second from Jan 15 2012 where you say "Nokia has DAB+ receivers for some of their phones", and a third from Jan 21 2011 titled "Nokia Digital Radio Headset Dab+". The latter two refer to the headset with a built-in DAB+ receiver, which I've said I already know about.

That's in addition to extensive searching on the rest of the web, which has uncovered nothing but the headset previously mentioned.

My particular interest - and, again, I'll re-reiterate that I'm quite genuinely and non-maliciously curious to know details if you have them - is in phones with built-in DAB / DAB+ receivers; a feature which you say "is already available in some Nokia phones". You seem to pride yourself on being helpful, so I'm surprised that you're so unwilling to help in this case.

I'm beginning to suspect, though, that no such phone exists - and that you are either confused as to how that headset works (the DAB chip is in the headset), or wilfully and stubbornly unable to admit that you were wrong when you stated that "It is already available in some Nokia phones".

(That's not to say, however, that it's not available in phones from certain other manufacturers...)

[alanh]

No malice????
Why should I look.
Alanh

[GoForMoe]

alanh, on 07 June 2012 - 02:58 PM, said:

No malice????
Why should I look.
Alanh

Because you're making the claim that it is already available in some phones - which is very different from an external headset because of the 'single chip' context. If there is a DAB+ ready Nokia phone, when you can add any set of headphones directly to it and get DAB+, then that is feature equivalent to the FM support (and indeed the internet radio support) that most Nokias have. If you need a specific DAB+ headset, like the Nokia CU-17A that retails for $89.95, then that's not the same. Integration is very different to having available adaptors.

[Malich]

alanh, on 07 June 2012 - 02:58 PM, said:

No malice????
Why should I look.

Yup, no malice. You stated that DAB+ chips were already available in some Nokia phones, I expressed curiosity about it and politely asked for further information. Since then, you have repeatedly avoided providing any further information.

Why should you look? Well, of course, you don't have to. At best, I thought you might have liked the opportunity to reinforce how your posts help people. At worst, I thought you might have relished the opportunity to prove you were right and I was wrong.

Not to mention that you may have, on further investigation, discovered that the Nokia CU-17A (presumably what you were thinking of) is a woefully poor device. Amongst many other problems:

• No pass-through for FM signals : you need to move the headphones from the adaptor to the phone to listen to FM radio. Interestingly, music stored on or streamed by the phone can be played through the DAB adaptor, as it will decode MP2, MP3, and AAC. Which links to the next problem...
  
• It's not really DAB+ compatible : sure, it demodulates DAB+, handles the different ECC wrapping that DAB+ uses, and can decode AAC, but it can't (properly) decode the SBR used in HE-AACv1 or the PS used in HE-AACv2. End result: DAB+ sounds like utter crap. Although it's often promoted and sold as a DAB/DAB+ receiver, Nokia themselves only refer to it as a DAB receiver.

Want links to support all of that? "Look for yourself". Cant find them? "You had better look harder"...

[MLXXX]

Malich, on 07 June 2012 - 06:00 PM, said:

...
Want links to support all of that? "Look for yourself". Cant find them? "You had better look harder"...

Quite.

[troykm]

<p>

Quote

<br>
Agrees. Tune in Radio is simple to install and use and uses minimal data.<br>

</p>
<p>&amp;nbsp;</p>
<p>Won&amp;#39;t happen. While i agree its easy to use, internet radio is limited in many ways. First of all most people do not have a smartphone. Second, most who do don&amp;#39;t want to use it as a radio device, myself included. Data plans are no where near what they would need to be to use streaming radio on a mobile device, you would need at least 10gb a month to cover most peoples radio listening habits if the mobile was the only access point. Which brings the other issue, no internet - no radio! Slow internet - no radio . Radio waves are more far reaching and cheaper to maintain than a vast mobile network. Another big issue is battery life. With everything you do on your smartphone now, using it as a radio device as well will kill the battery even faster. And who wants to pay &amp;nbsp;upwards of $700 for a phone to listen to the radio? Radio is and should be free. To have to have a data plan to receive radio on your mobile effectively makes it a subscription to a free service?! Makes no sense to me. Like all those who refuse to pay for foxtel but will pay for an internet connection costing about the same as foxtel so they can download inferior quality illegal movies/tv shows. Never understood that myself.</p>
<p>&amp;nbsp;</p>
<p>Try going to the MCG to an afl game with your mobile and listen to the radio broadcast on it, i bet you can&amp;#39;t even connect to the data network because only so many people can ever connect to one tower. Traditional radio signals don&amp;#39;t have that issue.&amp;nbsp;</p>
<p>&amp;nbsp;</p>
<p>Having said all that i must admit i don&amp;#39;t listen to the radio that much, never have LOL. I can&amp;#39;t stand listening to some moron radio jock try to be funny to entertain me when they could be playing music, the core reason i listen! And then the ads ads ads ads its worse than tv. Recently i listened to the fox in melbourne (austereo) and in a 30 min block they played 3 songs!!! The rest was either &amp;nbsp;morons trying to be funny or ads! &amp;nbsp;i digress LOL</p>
<p>&amp;nbsp;</p>
<p>So i think internet radio has a place but i think it is and will always be a niche product.&amp;nbsp;</p>
<p>&amp;nbsp;</p>
<div id="myEventWatcherDiv" style="display:none;">&amp;nbsp;</div>

Edited by troykm, 17 June 2012 - 06:58 AM.