Panero Talks Convergence

Hugh Panero thinks satellite radio and cellphones will converge within five years, Reuters reported.
The CEO of XM Satellite told the news organization, “Obviously, our core base is people who listen to radio in the home and car and now in the mobile market, and I think that as other distribution points present themselves, whether it be cellphones or other mobile devices, we obviously can have a place in that.”
He said XM has had discussions with other service providers and hardware manufacturers, helped by XM’s growing subscriber base, according to Reuters.
“We’re a natural place that people want to go to explore how we can do things together. Then you get a lot of engineers together and as long as they’re all motivated and in the same room, magic can happen. And that’s what I think will happen over the next five years,” he said.
Panero told Reuters he believed a portable satellite radio player would eventually be combined with a digital music player.
“Clearly, convergence will occur at some point. It will happen even without our effort because people are beginning to build MP3 capability into a lot of consumer electronic devices,” he said.
The Delphi XM MyFi became available this week at major consumer electronics retailers.