DAB – just an in-car option

The Ford Motor Company, although a shareholder in MXR Digital, plans to offer DAB Digital Radio in three models from later this year – but only as an option.

For the not insignificant upgrade cost of £300, future owners of new models of the Ford Focus, Ford C-MAX and Ford Kuga will be able to order their car with a Sony digital receiver.

While is expected to remain only an option for most Ford cars in the near future, one model – the Ford Kuga Titanium – will come with DAB as standard.

Car manufacturers traditionally require a very long lead-time to introduce new features and costs of DAB car units remain relatively high.    This step by Ford may be a small step in the right direction for DAB, but it seems that the important in-car radio listener market will continue to rely on AM and FM as their main means of radio reception for the immediate future.

3G iPhone available from July 11th

O2 in the UK will stock the new Apple 3G iPhone or under £100 from July 11th

The phone will be available for free on certain O2 consumer and business tariffs and also available for pay-as-you-go customers. Existing iPhone customers will be given an early upgrade offer to switch to the new model.

The 8GB 3G iPhone will cost just £99 on a new £30 per month tariff and the existing £35 per month tariff. Consumers choosing either the £45 or £75 per month tariffs will get the 8GB 3G iPhone for free.

The 16GB 3G iPhone will cost £159 on the £30 and £35 tariffs, £59 on the £45 tariff and it will be free on the £75 tariff.

The new 3G iPhone still does not carry the capability to receive terrestrial radio transmissions, whether analogue or digital.

Otherwise, the 3G iPhone combines all the revolutionary features of iPhone and adds the faster 3G network capability – improving the potential to receive online radio streaming.

It also boasts built-in GPS for expanded location based mobile services, and iPhone 2.0 software which includes support for Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync. Hundreds of third party applications now become possible with the recently released iPhone SDK.