Sirius XM’s SkyDock Transforms iPhone Into a Satellite Radio

Sirius XM has announced an iPhone accessory that will transform the iPhone into a full-fledged satellite radio.

The iPhone accessory called XM SkyDock will give iPhone user access to live XM and”The Best of SIRIUS” channels, which aren’t available on their online feeds.

XM SkyDock is one of the first iPhone accessories that makes use of the new hardware control capabilities of iPhone OS 3.0.

Folks at All Things Digitial reported that Sirius XM announced their iPhone accessory at a invitation-only media event in New York.Dubbed SkyDock, the $119.99 peripheral uses iPhone OS 3′s support for third-party hardware to transform Apple (AAPL) handsets into full-fledged satellite radios. Designed to run off a car’s cigarette power adapter, the SkyDock charges your iPhone while you listen to it and supports the ability to tag songs for download from iTunes. Better yet, it gives users access to all XM and “The Best of SIRIUS” channels, even those the company infamously excludes from its online feed, like Howard Stern, MLB Play-by-Play and NFL Play-by-Play.

The dock has a built-in XM tuner which can be controlled by a free iPhone App that will be available on the App Store at the same time as the accessory.

XM SkyDock will also allow users to tag the songs they hear on XM’s music channels so that they can purchase them for iTunes music store
later.

The iPhone accessory which is expected to cost $119.99 can also be plugged into a car’s cigarette lighter power port to mount and charge the iPhone.

XM SkyDock is compatible with all iPhone and iPod Touch models running iPhone OS 3.0.

Sirius hasn’t announced the release date for the accessory, but it is expected to go on sale this fall.

It will be interesting to see if iPhone users who enjoy satellite radio will buy the iPhone accessory rather than Sirius XM’s standalone satellite radio receivers.

What do you think?

[via AllThingsDigital]