Forbes Eco-Nomics blogger Jim Motavalli has weighed in with a post under the headline “HD Radio: Is It the Auto Industry’s Next Big Thing?”
Motavalli, also a blogger for the New York Times, is heading for the CES Show in Las Vegas. He said he was eager to learn more about HD Radio and rehearsed the standard talking points about HD Radio: great sound, additional offerings, tagging. He also noted that more auto makers are making HD Radio available as part of lower-level upgrade packages, the ones people are likely to consider rather than as part of the premium “sport-tune suspension and heated floor mats” packages that most ignore (broader choice and more affordable receivers have been big pitch points for iBiquity Digital in recent months and are only likely to be more so coming out of CES).
Especially attractive to Motavalli were the “sync” and voice command options in some cars, highlighted by Ford’s Sync, that included HD Radio but weren’t centered around HD Radio.
Motavalli also admits that he’s not an audiophile and not particularly sold by that aspect of HD Radio. “I’ve heard HD Radio in test cars, and it sounds fine to me, but not, well, like the difference between AM and FM. I don’t think my life would change if I had it in my daily ride, but I’d like to do a more thorough road test.”
Read it here.
