Streaming to iPhone, I guess I have to care

Technology purist, stand aside! Streaming radio to the iPhone is important.

Back before Apple released the 3G iPhone, I derided the attempts to stream to iPhone. In my defense, my criticism was justified at that time. However, the facts on the ground have changed and now I must sing a different tune.

Case in point, Radio NRI had been streaming for months using standards-based 3GPP format to Sprint and AT&T phones as an off-deck solution. The results were less than stellar and the percentage of total listeners using the mobile streams was negligible.

Then in July, AOL Radio released their AOL Radio app for iPhone. As of October, an estimated 10% of the listeners enjoying the Radio NRI streams on AOL Radio were on the iPhone. 10%! That is a huge percentage considering the relative market share of iPhone. Yes, iPhone shipments are surging, but they still form potential audience that is an order of magnitude smaller than the broader multimedia phone market. At street events this summer, people would walk up to the Radio NRI booth with their iPhone saying "I found you guys here, this is amazing, I was just listening to Bollywood Classic Hits in my car using my iPhone."

What makes the popularity of iPhone radio applications so surprising is that they are generally using MP3 to deliver their streams. In general, MP3 is way too fat for mobile streaming and the streaming protocol it uses is not at all suited for reliable listening. Nonetheless, iPhone users are eating it up.

This audience has two big things going for it. First, the iPhone is dead easy to use. Do a side by side of trying to tune into Tuner2.com on your Sprint multimedia handset (even on the lauded Samsung Instinct!) and then try to use AOL Radio on your iPhone. The comparison is like night and day. Using a dedicated radio app on an iPhone is much easier than navigating through your multimedia phone's clumsy UI.

Second, the iPhone user is motivated. They whole reason they bought the phone was to access the Internet, enjoy media, and to download custom apps. This motivation makes it natural that iPhone users would want to enjoy Internet radio on their iPhone. A perfect match.

So here I am, eating a bit of crow. To repeat the words of Stephen Colbert, "the free market has spoken." Internet radio on iPhone is a key audience for all broadcasters. Now they need to work to deliver iPhone apps that get beyond the crappy MP3 streaming and start delivering quality audio over reliable transports.

Stay tuned...

AT&T's ulterior motive - 3G vs. WiFi

All hail! AT&T has given all the iPhone users free WiFi access inside their hotspot network at places like Starbucks. Pretty cool, huh?

Not so fast... While this may seem like altruistic behavior, it is just good business. 3G data is pretty darn expensive to deliver. If an AT&T customer with a dual-radio device, like an iPhone, is within range of their WiFi network, then it saves them a ton of cash to move that user onto the WiFi.

So, while it is definitely a nice capability for users, don't think AT&T is doing you a favor. They are just reducing their costs. On the other hand, if they suddenly enable VoIP over that free WiFi, the rules really would start changing.

IP radio = standard car option?

Sorry to disappoint, but I don't see Internet radio as being a standard feature in US cars anytime soon. However, that doesn't mean that the use of Internet radio in the car won't become widespread. It will just take a different path.

Legal requirements for handsfree operation of phones while driving is pushing adoption of Bluetooth in the car. Conversion kits will give way to standard option Bluetooth, likely with A2DP (e.g. stereo audio) support. This means that instead of native devices, the route for Internet radio into the car is a docked cellphone.

The choice of Bluetooth connecting docked phones is also driven by the economics of alternative solutions. To have widespread adoption, you need a standard. Yes, MPEG-4 HE AAC over RTP is the standard for streaming Internet radio to vast millions of mobile phones. However, the means of getting IP connectivity to the car are varied, causing the need to purchase some kind of custom device for each carrier. If you are going to spend money on a new connection device, why not just dock the phone in the car? I know there is growing interest in 3G to WiFi routers out there which will make your car a roaming hotspot using a 3G dongle or PCMCIA card, but that still doesn't solve the last 3 feet problem of connecting to the car speakers.

A final driver for the Bluetooth A2DP route is that the 3G carriers in the USA don't have a consumer friendly business model for non-voice device connections. In other regions (e.g. Japan), device makers can release a data-only device which uses the wireless data network. I have also heard of these kind of devices in the EU, using GSM for remote monitoring applications. However, the dynamics of the US market don't seem to go that way. WiMax won't cut it, even if it gets deployed. WiMax only works in metros and people want a radio that works at least nationwide - you would need 3G and 2.5G support in the radio. My Sprint or AT&T music phone will that criteria just fine and my flat rate data plan on those phones is $15/month.

Bottom line, unless the carriers make a joint push with device makers for a data-only IP radio and a standards body approves the profile (3GPP in cooperation with NAB would be a good choice), docked phones using A2DP are the most likely near to mid-term scenario. The only real downside with this solution is that the SBC codec used by default on A2DP phones has quality issues. For IP radio, though, the benefit of getting the stream you want will definitely outweigh this quality limitation.

Off to the races

So what is this all about? Since XM burst on the scene in 1999, I have been dreaming of the day when Internet radio would arrive in the car to give the satellite radio duopoly a run for its money. My first experiment was to take a spin around the parking lot at 241 Polaris Avenue, Mountain View, listening to my WiFi laptop through the car speakers.

Worked OK, but the range sucked!

Sprint and Verizon 1xRTT data cards soon arrived on the scene. Those had better range, of course, but the data hand-off was miserable, so driving down the road didn't work so well. Also, who wants to futz with a laptop on the passenger seat?

Smart phones arrived, but they are not a true mass market device and are notoriously short on standards-based multimedia features. Windows Media may be fine for the PC (for some), but stream it over a wireless network and it not only sounds bad, but cannot maintain a reliable stream.

So, now that I have ranted on what doesn't work, let's talk about what will work. The features of the Ideal Internet Car Radio are:

1. Receiver device is an off the shelf, consumer device ($99 or less when purchased with a plan)
2. Device supports standards-based mobile streaming (3GPP) out of the box
3. Device comes with a low-cost, unlimited, 3G data plan
4. Can access free radio (without additional subscription) from anywhere on the net.
5. Can connect to the car audio.
6. Can connect to car power *while* audio is connected (don't want to drain the battery!)
7. Works reliably for long times & distances (can commute without significant hiccups)
8. Does not need a special antenna.

This list quickly eliminates a lot of hyped stuff. Slacker fails, iPhone fails, Sansa Connect fails, and anything that only supports WMA or MP3 streaming fails.

The good news is that the list is now satisfied by a number of phones from open-minded carriers like Sprint and AT&T/Cingular. I have conducted experiments using these phones and the results are pretty amazing. More on that soon.

-fred jackson