(Michael has requested that this blog post be removed.)

Interesting read, James.

I’m in total agreement on the mobile devices market here; we’re all being pushed towards tablets, iPhones and the like, and yet hardly any of these manufacturers are installing DAB players on their devices.

I believe Nokia have made steps in this direction, but with so much mobile internet available (and subsequently the likes of last.fm and spotify) – is there any real need for a mobile DAB player?

We all get annoyed at radio stations’ poor ‘playlists’, so why subject ourselves to it when we can make our own selections through a different medium?

Jon – you could also, rightly, question whether there’s any need for a music radio station at all.

The future of music radio is the bits between the songs, rather than the music itself. It’s why the BBC does rather well, I think, in the figures.

Interesting article, James.

Jon – surely the reason that few mobile devices such as iPhone have DAB is because the primary markets are the USA & Japan, where different digital radio systems are used.

If DMB/DAB+ takes off in China, South Korea & other Asian countries this may change but this highlights the drawbacks of using different digital radio systems around the world, and the North American HD Radio isn’t helped by this either.

I’m not an expert by any means just an observer, but I think DAB is going to be a white elephant for several reasons.

1. It is old and now outdated technology, by 2015 DAB will be have been around some 30 years. It cannot be easily upgraded and those now owing receivers would have to buy new sets to get a system with better codecs.

2. There is no common international standard, so receivers are country specific.

3. The UK system doesn’t provide the technical quality or coverage one expects from a “digital” service.

4. Receivers are still expensive, rather large and from I’ve read on non-radio forums, not that reliable.

5. Broadcasters, apart from the BBC, are not designing services available exclusive DAB which are likely to persuade the public to buy a DAB set.

6. Despite the positive and constant spinning by the industry it has not captured the imagination of the general public at large, growth may occurring but there is no groundswell surge to buy DAB receivers.

In conclusion if anyone expects a “switch-over” to happen at the current rate of growth by 2015 then they are going to be sadly disappointed.

Only the general public dictate can the growth of DAB and they ain’t that interested. The industry must face that fact, accept it, then actually bloody do something about it.

If you want people to buy big, clunky, battery sucking receivers which use a mediocre 30 year old codec which doesn’t sound that “fantastic” then the only thing left is to start putting something on DAB that people are willing to invest their hard earned cash in buying a receiver to hear.

How likely is that to happen?

Unfortunately articles like the one you have written here about “the facts” will do none of these things, just as the rest of persuasion techniques currently being employed.

And the Radio Academy bash should have been a crisis meeting where people thrashed out a really creative plan to get interest in DAB really going, not a motivational back-slapping exercise where people came away feeling better about the future of the industry.

OK, Terry, I’ll play… I’ll respond to these in a blog post.

There’s is no playing here I can assure you. I believe the industry is in big sh*t over DAB, really big, I’m merely expressing how I see it.

If DAB isn’t successful, and nothing I seen read or heard up to now convinces me it will be, then where does one go from there? The real consequences of failure haven’t been thought through I would suspect.

My brother has bought several DAB sets, all in the trash now and vow’s he’ll never get one again. What’s going to convince him and the many like him to spend yet more money on DAB?

[...] Purvis is a reader of this blog, and comments to a blog post I made recently about “the unspun digital radio figures” by posting a number of reasons [...]