iHD, anyone?

Nice piece from Mark Ramsey of hear2.0, noting that Apple sold more iPhones in three days than the radio industry has sold HD Radios in three years.

Now strictly speaking it’s not fair to compare a tech phenomenon to the many that are not (okay, to the almost all that are not). Then again, very few tech gadgets have hundreds of millions of dollars of complimentary on-air support and the power of the radio industry behind them.

The consumer is speaking volumes with numbers like these. Are you listening to what he’s telling you?

I’ve had an HD Radio for a few months now, and even though it’s my own industry, I don’t get the value proposition. The commercial stations are offering additional channels of the same crappy music, and many of the public stations (with notable exceptions like KUOW/KXOT and KUT) are offering unoriginal, turnkey content. Gee, that’s compelling. I think I’ll go stand in line for 25 hours to get me one of those.