Unlike most of the companies exhibiting at the...
Unlike most of the companies exhibiting at the first PRO Group Vendor Fair Tuesday, iBiquity wasn’t there to find additional retail accounts, but mainly to “remind” the group’s retail members about the HD Radio category, said Bernie Sapienza, vice president-retail…
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business development. IBiquity developed an exclusive program for Best Buy about three to four years ago and it’s trying to figure out a similar type of program for PRO members that will include Audiovox products, he said. The Best Buy program included a line of low-cost HD Radio products costing $50-$100, he said. “We don’t expect all of them” to take part in the program, he said of the PRO members, conceding that some of the retailers only focus on high-end electronics. IBiquity also used the Vendor Fair to tout Garmin GPS navigation systems that feature HD Radio. The “biggest misnomer” about HD Radio is that products featuring it transmit radio, he said. The initial Garmin device was the first non-audio device that provided HD Radio service, he said. The company is hoping to get HD Radio incorporated into smartphones also, he said. IBiquity is hopeful that recent deals between Sprint and broadcasters to deliver analog radio to cellphones represents a step in “the right direction” to bring HD Radio to smartphones also, he said. Many tablets that are sold don’t feature 3G service and that prevents many of them from receiving radio services when people are away from a Wi-Fi connection, so iBiquity is in talks with tablet makers to try and get HD Radio added to those devices, he said.