Sirius Radio's Radical Handheld

BusinessWeek reports on Sirius' upcoming handheld, rechargeable player, the S50, which debuts in late October. The player can't receive live broadcasts, but can store up to 50 hours of recorded satellite radio programming. It will list for $359.99 and will require a $12.95 monthly subscription.

According to Dan Benjamin at ABI Research, the potential market for portable satellite players "is expected to grow to 10 million units by decade's end." With most of it sales driven by the automotive market, Sirius is banking on the S50. Tuna Amobi at Standard & Poor's said, "It's a big factor to long-term growth."

Roger Kay at Endpoint Technologies Associates noted that as "podcasts get better, they could mount a challenge to satellite radio"

Are consumers going to pay the hefty cost for the device plus $12.95 a month? Personally, methinks it's a bit too pricey for what you get. I'm not the biggest advocate for music subscriptions or music phones for that matter but a reasonable priced MP3 player with a subscription or a streaming service to the handset makes more sense to me....