Mercora, the Internet’s largest and fastest growing user-contributed digital radio network, today announced the availability of Mercora IM Radio Mobile v1.0. IM Radio Mobile supports Microsoft Windows Mobile 2003-based devices, such as Pocket PCs and Pocket PC phones, and provides mobile and wireless access to the world’s largest user-contributed digital radio network powered by people, disk jockeys and artists from all over the world. With over twenty thousand commercial-free channels available daily, IM Radio Mobile users can search, find and listen to thousands of artists and hundreds of genres in high fidelity sound from the convenience of their Windows Mobile-based devices and phones.
“IM Radio gives people instant access to a huge network of music, social interactivity features, and audio quality that is superior to XM or digital radio,” said Rob Enderle, principal analyst, the Enderle Group. “The cell phone carriers and Windows Mobile device manufacturers are looking for a way to get in on the XM radio and the iPod craze, and Mercora provides a compelling way to provide rich audio content to users.”
Users applaud IM Radio Mobile Version 1.0. “A Pocket PC with IM Radio is like having a wireless iPod with way better sound and music selection,” commented beta tester Cliff Thomson, host of the RadioVillaStJeanMusicCircle station on the Mercora network. “I now use my HP iPAQ 6315 Pocket PC phone as my primary music device anytime I’m on the road or at a Starbucks.”
IM Radio Mobile 1.0 provides:
— Support for any Windows Mobile 2003-based Pocket PC or Pocket PC phone with Wi-Fi, GSM or GPRS (3G) connectivity. Windows Mobile-certified devices include Pocket PCs by Hewlett-Packard Co. (HP), Dell Inc. and Asus, and Pocket PC phones by HP, Samsung, Audiovox, Siemens, and i-mate.
— Mobile access to over twenty thousand individually programmed music radio channels representing a wide diversity in genres and styles that truly reflect the musical tastes of people all over the world. Such a capability is unavailable on any existing terrestrial, satellite or Internet radio service.
— A new metaphor for mobile radio that allows people to search, find and listen to music and related programming from users, DJs and artists on Mercora’s global radio networks in the U.S. and Canada. IM Radio Mobile also allows users to easily search the network for available broadcasts by artist, genre and webcaster/DJ.
— High fidelity, near-CD quality sound by incorporating a version of Ogg Vorbis that has been highly optimized by Mercora developers. Ogg Vorbis is a fully open, non-proprietary, patent-and-royalty-free, general-purpose compressed audio format for audio and music, in the same competitive class as MPEG-4 (AAC), and similar to, but higher performance than MP3 and WMA.
— Instant messaging, group chat and social networking capabilities that allows users to keep in touch with friends and family while roaming.
“With over 1.5m downloads, twenty thousand user-programmed channels from a catalog of over thirty million songs, CD-quality sound and social interactivity,” said Srivats Sampath, CEO, Mercora. “IM Radio is poised to rapidly surpass satellite radio as the next big thing in global digital radio.”
Pricing and Availability
IM Radio Mobile is available now free to all Mercora Premier Subscribers. Subscribers pay $3.99 per month (billed annually) or $4.99 per month (billed monthly). Premier users get unlimited listening and up to 10 hours of music recording, among other benefits. Mercora’s mission is to catalog and organize the world’s music and audio content and make it universally searchable and legally listenable for everyone. The company has completely redefined radio by creating the world’s largest user-contributed digital music network, Mercora’s IM Radio. Twenty thousand channels of commercial-free high fidelity sound with powerful social networking built-in are available to everyone, anywhere. Mercora (http://www.mercora.com) is headquartered in Santa Clara, CA. Paula Dunne, 408-776-1400 or 408-893-8750 (mobile)
paula@contosdunne.com