Belkin and GPS: Slick FM Broadcast Channel Selection Assistance...Ahead Of Potential Apple Obsolescence?
Since writing my location-centric business opportunity analysis and challenge piece four months back, I’ve been keeping an eye out for particularly compelling GPS-fueled applications. One, my Garmin sports watch that I tweeted about a few weeks ago, will get indepth Brian’s Brain analysis in the coming days. But for now, I wanted to give a briefer but timelier shout-out to Belkin, who rolled out its TuneCast Auto Live FM transmitter and free companion ClearScan Live software last week:
This $80 accessory enables you to listen to music or any other Apple device-sourced sound over your car stereo or other audio gear via a FM radio intermediary. The ClearScan Live software sets, directly from an iPhone or iPod touch, the FM transmission channel used by the tethered Belkin peripheral (the hardware’s also compatible with the iPod classic and iPod nano, albeit in a non-software-driven fashion):
But with the 2nd generation iPhone’s built-in GPS capabilities, the real product magic is unlocked. Since the iPhone knows where you are, it can tap into a location-sorted database of FM transmitter frequencies that won’t interfere with nearby radio broadcasters. And since the iPhone has both cellular and Wi-Fi data capabilities, you can socially evolve that dataset by providing feedback on what channels work particularly well (and poor, for that matter).
The hardware/software bundle won’t ship until early this fall, so why is Belkin unveiling it now? I ’spect it’s because the FM receiver seemingly already built into the 2nd generation iPod touch (albeit to date unused) will be augmented (if rumors are correct) by both FM reception and transmission capabilities built into a new iPhone to be unveiled in 24 hours’ time at the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference keynote. If true, this is a smart move on Belkin’s part; plant the idea ’seed’ of a comparatively inexpensive motivation for current iPhone owners to hold onto their existing widgets, prior to those same owners getting tempted by an Apple widget upgrade.
