Ever since the launch of iPhone 2.0 that dragged the Internet to a screeching halt, when the struggling AOL trying to alter its business model ever since its ISP division all but caved in on itself; recently came up with an iPhone application that won the Apple award for “Best Entertainment Application” at this year’s WWDC.
Operating by the name of AOL Radio, the new application enables users to access the radio service through EDGE or Wi-Fi.
Now, users of the 3G iPhone will be able to listen to them while rapidly draining the battery on your iPhone! — Besides all the fun, this application is ad-supported; therefore it is available free of charge.
According to reports in the New York Times, AOL Radio will allow the iPhone to connect to AOL’s streaming radio service via either the 3G network or WiFi. The GPS system of the phone will allow it to pinpoint your exact location, which will deliver local programming as well as any of 200 stations that offer 25 genres of music.
AOL Radio is in sync with both the original iPhone and the new iPhone 3G, which is set to be released July 11. There will be audio advertising in the application, and banner ads have not been ruled out.
The AOL created application was highlighted during the “iPhone Developer Showcase” and it was built using the iPhone SDK.
According to Kevin Conroy, an executive vice president of AOL, the sound quality offered by AOL Radio is as good as that of CD music.
Most remarkably, a similar technology is available to others that offer streaming services. This can be audio and presumably video of all types, including the sort of customized radio offered by Pandora and Last.FM.
Thus far, AOL has had a very exciting 2008. Last month the company announced its decision to support the OpenSocial project, announced by Google in October. AOL joined the heavy name group formed so far, which includes Linkedln, Hi5, Bebo and Plaxo.
In March, AOL announced it has acquired Bebo, one of the most popular social networking sites Europe. AOL agreed to pay for its acquisition $850 million in cash. Bebo has 40 million worldwide users and is considered one of the leading social networks in the UK.
And just last week CBS Radio and AOL, who partnered on an online streaming radio player, have announced that a modified version of the player will be available for the new iPhone. Now, whenever you want to hear “Lollipop” and you can not be bothered to load it into iTunes, just turn on your phone.
All of this starts to answer the nagging question about how much autonomy Apple and AT&T will allow to applications that may challenge their own businesses. Streaming media, of course, can use a lot of bandwidth. And it can compete both with Apple’s iTunes store and whatever hopes AT&T may have for making money from over-the-air music and video.
So far, Apple has not confined AOL’s ability to offer over-the-air streaming supported by ads. However, Apple does seem to understand that it will ultimately fare best if it makes the iPhone as useful as possible. And that means exploiting the device’s ability to stream music, talk and video.
So buy an Apple iPhone and download the new AOL Radio application. This will automatically detect your current location and tune to the digital stream from the nearest CBS station.