…USA Today spotlights only five “Music” items in their Holiday Gift Guide – including one radio, and that’s an Internet Radio device called the OXX Tube.
To be sure, it’s a device primarily for the techno-adventurous and those they love.
The rest of the “Music” category include the new iPod, the new Zune, the Sansa View, and a high-end set of iPod speakers.
There is no conventional radio on the list, however – as I would have predicted – the list includes two items (the Zune and the Sansa) which contain FM radios even though that’s not the main reason to buy the devices.
In other words, as I like to say, people generally don’t buy radios, they buy things that contain radios. You buy the mp3 devices and the radio comes along for free.
Needless to say, this reality has massive implications for the way you disseminate new radio technology into the marketplace.
When it comes to gadget “curb appeal,” the sexy radios will be the items that aren’t purchased because they’re radios – and Internet radios (and, by the way, the sexiest Internet radios will not be bricks that sit on a desktop).