HD Radio spinners claim a breakthrough year
8 Feb 2008 | 08:30 GMT
Pulling a fast one
THE HD RADIO Alliance has been attempting to claim that 2007 was a breakthrough year for the technology.
HD radio sales need to be quite high if the radio stations are going to be able to convince advertisers go buy space.
According to a press release from the Alliance 330,000 HD receivers were sold last year. This is a 725 per cent increase from the 40,000 sets purchased a year earlier and therefore 2007 was a 'breakthrough year' for the technology. In 2008 they will sell a million of the things.
Well, not really. InsideMedia points out that while the figure was better than last year 330,000 is a drop in the ocean when it comes to this sort of thing. And when Best Buy and Wal-Mart drop to the new low price of just $99 it is sign that things are not going that well.
The Alliance is hoping that prices will drop further and kill off analogue sets. If that happened then perhaps the technology will go somewhere. But generally things like satellite radio or even plain old analogue are giving the technology a good kicking.
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