XM SkyDock Turns iPod touch/iPhone Into Sat Radio Receiver

It's still a little funny to think that Sirius and XM Radio are nowone, and honestly, it's funny to think the company is still hangingaround. After being recently bailed out by Liberty Media and getting an iPhone app into the approval queue, the company is taking things onestep further by introducing its SkyDock mounting system.

Essentially, the $120 XM SkyDock converts one's iPhone or iPod touchinto an actual satellite radio receiver, and it gets power from yourautomobile's cigarette adapter. The device sounds a little pricey, butthe features are certainly nice. For example, users can easily flagsongs that play in order to purchase them later on iTunes. Needless tosay, the move is being made in an attempt to boost its subscriberratings from around 19 million; currently, it picks up the most newcustomers via new car sales, but it's having a hard time generatinginterest outside of the dealership.


And given that just about everyone has or knows someone with an iPodtouch or iPhone, this plan certainly seems like one that could generateinterest. The SkyDock is one of the first items to actual takeadvantage of the new hardware control capabilities in iPhone OS 3.0,and obviously it charges the device when plugged in. It should shipthis fall right around the time that the aforesaid app gets approved,though it still sounds as if NFL content will be missing despite thefact that you need a full subscription to listen in at all.