Reports are surfacing via Twice.com, Radio and Internet Newsletter, and others that manufacturers are set to unveil inexpensive head units that will support Internet radio through mainly smartphones in 2011, and do it much mroe cheaply than before, putting mobile Internet radio within the reach of many more people.
One report I've seen puts the cost of a head unit, which is what you buy, down to as little as $179. That is not all that much more than the average car stereo that you would buy at Walmart, or most seen at Best Buy.
They will also start to support more smartphones too, not just the iPhone, some will support Android devices right off, Android is now the most widely available smartphone operating system, more handsets and devices are out there combined than iPhoes.
The only real problem left to allowing Internet radio in the car or handheld to go more mainstream, is the onerous bandwidth caps that severely limit how much Internet radio one can listen to each month, and the exhorbitant costs some providers are charging, as once the bandwidth caps are lifted, and we go back to the unlimited plans everyone had until this year for the most part on AT&T and Verizon, and bring the costs down to about $30 to $40 a month, and also eventually have, in addition to smartphones, 'Internet radio-only' devices as well, then Internet radio in the car will really and finally be allowed to take off, and the adventure in great radio listening ca begin.
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