MobilBLU (now there’s a terrible company name for you!) says its new $130 MP3 player gets 150 hours of battery life and is preconfigured to download podcasts with one click, according to this story in InformationWeek. This the first device I’m aware of that was designed specifically for podcasts and I’m sure we’ll see more innovation in this area.
BTW, the story quotes In-Stat research forecasting that digital audio player sales will reach 286 million units in 2010. If you do the math, that figures out to about one unit per U.S. resident. Hmmm. I dunno about that. Unless they’re giving away MP3 players in cereal boxes by then. But not everyone likes cereal…
150 hours of battery life? Sure, if it’s off for 149 of those hours… I’ll see it when I believe it. The LG 9800 cell phone is supposed to get 8 days of battery life, but if you use it to do something crazy like, say, talk on it or sent txt msgs, the whole battery gets drained in about 10 hours. Let them tout weeks of battery life. Let me doubt them along the way…
Hi Paul,
Thanks for the great mention of mobiBLU and the link covering our cool client at Topaz Partners, Podcast Ready. We love pitching the angle of “podcast listening comes to the great non-iPod masses.”
I’m wondering if the In-Stat projection is looking at a global audience for their extimates?
By the way, I’m working on a pitch to a wire service looking at podcasting’s possible role in shared communications between Chinese (and other) activists. Hopefully, the ISPs won’t bow down and shut down http://www.podcastready.com‘s directory and content sharing services.
Cheers, Adam
P.S. bunnylvr,
Understand that this is from sometimes shameless “PR flack,” but the record battery time is partly due to the following:
1) Proprietary processor (not the more common Telechip or SignaTel)
2) Software coding for maximum efficiency – especially if you don’t need the OLED display on all the time
3) Innovative battery not found in Sony or Apple products.
4) Korean engineers are amazing!
Right you are, Adam. The In-Stat research specifically said worldwide sales. I missed that.