Engadget is home base for tech trendsetters.
And here’s what they had to say on the new Cambridge Soundworks Tabletop HD Radio:
Cambridge SoundWorks has thrown its hat into the HD Radio ring with its 820HD, which debuted last week at CEDIA. HD Radio, the new digital radio format, for those of you keeping score at home, is now available from about 1,000 stations who are simulcasting in HD and in traditional formats — which is still less than 10 percent of all American radio. Furthermore, the price of a new HD radio still remains significantly higher than a pocket or tabletop analog radio. How much higher? Well, this newest offering will set you back $300 when it becomes available in November — and that little $20 “transistor” radio your Mom gave you in 1987 still works great, doesn’t it? So yes, we’re still listening to National Public Radio and baseball games in analog, thank you very much.
Remember, the vibe from the tech-heads should be off the wall.
Yet we see comments like these:
– “still less than 10 percent of all American radio.” – “and that little $20 ‘transistor’ radio your Mom gave you in 1987 still works great, doesn’t it? So yes, we’re still listening to National Public Radio and baseball games in analog, thank you very much”
When something “works great,” that means you don’t have a problem. And if you don’t have a problem you don’t need a solution to that problem, particularly when the expectation is that the NEW radio is meant to replace its functional equivalent: Your OLD radio.
Unless HD Radio can “create” a consumer problem, why should Joe and Jane consumer adopt it?
Note that this is not an issue of price: It’s an issue of need. Nobody complains about the price of a new iPod – unless the value of that iPod doesn’t match the price.