Though widely reported to have been killed by video, the radio star lingers on, propped up by podcasts and Internet streaming, a shadow of its former self.
Now, perhaps encouraged by popular interest in Apple's iPhone as a music platform, radio is returning to the limelight, urged on by mobile carriers eager to find applications that justify the price of flat-rate data plans.
On Tuesday, the hope is that the radio star will get a much-needed boost by turning listeners into broadcasters. That's when Microsoft plans to announce a distribution deal to make Mercora's newly updated social radio service, Mercora M v2, available for Windows Mobile devices.
While the arrangement doesn't (yet) involve preloading Mercora on Windows Mobile phones, said Srivats Sampath, president and CEO of Mercora, it does mean exposure to some 6 million to 8 million Windows Mobile users through Microsoft's Windows Mobile sites online.
Mercora qualifies as social radio because it allows users to create playlists of songs from locally stored music and from songs streamed by other users, and then make those playlists available online for others. (Technically, Mercora's Internet streaming service isn't radio, although extending the service to wireless phones makes the term "radio" more apt.)
Making the jump from outdated legacy technology to a more modern digital infrastructure will allow businesses to innovate at the speed and scale needed in today’s marketplace.
The business world is speeding up. The longer IT leaders wait to get their needs met, the more at risk their businesses and their jobs will be.
By arming SD-WAN networks with end-to-end intelligence, analytics-driven predictions, and predictive automation solutions, IT teams can simplify infrastructure management and assure higher levels of quality experiences for users.
