Cliq mobile music service not so dead after all

OH, WHAT A SURPRISE. The music download service known as Cliq Radio developed by UBC Media has given up the ghost. The INQ actually bothered to try it and revealed it was pants.

However, a source inside UBC Media/Unique claimed, "We are still exploring a couple of eleventh-hour options to keep it going and hope to release a third upgrade."

The reality, however, has been that according to the official news blurb, " UBC expects to make savings of £1.2million after closure costs [for Cliq download] of approximately £1.1million. No further funds will be invested in Cliq."

But the technology is far from dead. The company will keep its relationship with Pure Digital - the UK's leading supplier of affordable DAB (Digital Audio Broadcast) radios and formerly known as Videologic.

There's also a link with Imagination Technologies which is best known on the INQ for its PowerVR SGX programmable unified core. Pure appears to be a division of Imagination. The crucial offering here from Pure is Wi-fi enabled DAB radios.

Cliq had based its hopes on the fact that handset manufacturers would stick DAB chips inside their products, which would have made it much easier to integrate DAB music stations with a digital track download service as Cliq attempted.

The only example of this the INQ can think of was the awful Lobster 700 TV handset offered in the UK by Virgin Mobile. Who on earth would put a lobster next to their ear?

Rumour has it that Cliq radio will effectively stop operating from today but it hasn't yet and the INQ just downloaded a free track from it. Those INQ readers who have already signed up to Cliq ought to act fast. µ

See also:
Cliq disappoints with complex download service