Sirius XM iPhone App Surpasses One Million Downloads, 37,000 Negative Reviews
by John Paczkowski
Posted on July 6, 2009 at 6:58 AM PT
Despite some glaring omissions in its channel lineup, Sirius XM’s new iPhone app has earned considerable traction in Apple’s (AAPL) iTunes App Store. It was downloaded more than one million times in the first two weeks it was available–this despite the fact that the app doesn’t include access to Howard Stern, the personality Sirius (SIRI) often claims is responsible for driving more subscriptions than any other.
“Reaching more than 1 million downloads so quickly is a strong testament to our world-class programming and Sirius XM’s instant brand recognition,” Scott Greenstein, president and chief content officer, said in a release trumpeting the milestone. “Our goal is to give people access to the best audio entertainment wherever they go with what we think is the best music and audio entertainment application available on the App Store.”
The app, which debuted on June 18, quickly became the top free offering in the the App Store’s music category and has held that spot for some time now. So it’s certainly one of the more popular music apps available. That said, it’s also one of the most poorly rated. Sirius XM’s app has an average rating of just two stars out of a possible five. Of its 56,952 user reviews, just 8,822 give it five stars. But 37,818 rate it a single star. And most of those do so citing Stern’s absence as the reason. So while it’s true that Sirius XM Premium Online is the the top free app in the music category, it’s also seems to be its leading disappointment. Makes you wonder how many of those one million downloads were deleted, either after the user noticed Stern’s absence or the $2.99/month subscription fee.
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Comments
This 1 Million downloads makes total sense. We have been waiting for a sirius radio app for so long, but when I go to get it, after I tried to sign in with my information, I was shut down because I am not a premium user. I don’t want to pay an extra $2.99 a month for a service I will use about 100 times a year.
Posted by davvid justice at July 6th, 2009 at 7:25 amWhile the lack of Howard may be an issue it’s not the only one.
I have the app but it was not particularly easy to sign up for a Premium account even though I already had an XM online account.
Secondarily I have to agree to the previous comment about the $2.99 added cost when the advertisement for a “free” app makes it sound like you can listen at no additional cost.
Thirdly the UI needs some work. Finding channels by channel number doesn’t seem possible and adding channels to Favorites requires going into the channel to add.
Good start but needs work.
Posted by Tony Clark at July 6th, 2009 at 9:13 amNo one has said this, but Sirius had this app “ready to go” months ago and suddenly pulled it. I wonder if there was an APPL review/edict that forced the removal of Howard due to either AT&T Internet traffic concerns or APPL’s apparent monitoring of indecency?
Posted by bill adams at July 6th, 2009 at 9:44 amGOOD NEWS!! There is a DVD movie out about the whole Sirius XM/Mel K. story called: Stock Shock. Very good flick and explains stock market manipulation as well. Stock Shock is at amazon.com and stockshockmovie.com
Posted by Denise Hubbard at July 6th, 2009 at 11:34 amMaybe it was downloaded 1 million times because it does not have access to Howard Stern!
Posted by David Robins at July 7th, 2009 at 4:07 amI’d like to know what their retention rate is.
I, too, downloaded it but deleted it after the trial period.
My guess is that it’s no more than 10%.
I already pay for XM/Sirius.
Not going to be nickle and dimed for more dough to listen on my iPod or IPhone, Mel.
Posted by Richard Pachter at October 13th, 2009 at 7:31 am