What was Sirius XM Radio (NASDAQ:SIRI) thinking? It finally rolled out its Web streaming app for Apple's (NASDAQ:AAPL) App Store on Thursday, but premium subscribers are out of luck if they thought they'd be hearing Howard Stern on their iPhones and iPod touch devices.
The satellite radio operator is already making the gutsy move of pricing its Web-based subscriptions at the same monthly $12.95 price as its popular satellite receiver-based broadcasts (or just $2.99 a month for existing subscribers). Now those downloading the App Store program will find that a lot of the content they expect on satellite radio, like live sporting events and Stern, are not available.
Sure, Sirius XM's music content is amazing, but there are countless free music alternatives available through Apple's virtual storefront.
Briefly in the news
And now let's take a quick look at some of the other stories that shaped our week.
- Yahoo! (NASDAQ:YHOO) and Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) are on notice. Microsoft's (NASDAQ:MSFT) Bing is more that just a novelty search engine. Web watcher comScore revealed that traffic to Bing.com continues to grow since its late-May debut. Bing is now delivering 12.1% of the country's search result pages. It may not seem like a big number, but it's problematic for Google if it keeps growing.
- Speaking of search, China's leader, Baidu (NASDAQ:BIDU), scored a price target upgrade from Goldman Sachs. The firm's new price target on Baidu is $350. The interesting observation here is that it had raised its target on Baidu to $300 just two weeks earlier. China! It's growing up so fast.
Until next week, I remain,
Rick Munarriz
