Agatha Christie he’s not; but there’s no doubt Michael Robertson is an interesting guy with interesting things to say.
A recent edition of his weekly “Michael’s Minute” venting, “The Smartphone Killed the Car Radio,” predicted the demise of the car radio. Well, at least the car radio used as a broadcast receiver, that is.
The usurper? The smartphone; and Robertson muses on the role his company DAR.fm might play in that development.
The way Robertson sees it, the smartphone (connected to the Internet or not while in the car) has the capability of downloading not only music but whole radio programs (via a service like DAR.fm); programs far beyond the scope of the local broadcast market. These stored programs can then be replayed at leisure in the car.
Robertson draws the distinction of car listeners as passive “robots” traditionally listening to broadcast vs. the new age of the interactive listener controlling what they want to listen to via the smartphone (or an MP3 player). He sees an age barrier in this battle for attention, noting some research explicating that such behavior is increasingly common of people below the age of 25.
He also posted videos showing how to sync radio shows to an iPad, iPhone, Android or PC to use with other mobile devices.
“My smart phone has already made my car radio obsolete because I rarely listen to broadcast radio,” he writes.
“The Smartphone Killed the Car Radio”
Related:
“Dar.fm 1.0 Launches” (Aug. 2011)
