Some of the Slacker crew is here in DC today and, while I couldn’t swing a meeting, we did carve out time for a brief phone call. Basically, much of what Mari loves from her Slacker Portable hardware will be ported to the Blackberry platform next month. Unlike Pandora‘s mobile solution, Slacker copies playlist songs down to a device. Though you’ll obviously need a network to populate your mobile, once loaded, you’ll be able to listen on the subway or plane without worrying about connectivity. The basic ad-supported service will remain free, and an ad-free premium service will also be offered. RIM’s serious about reaching beyond their traditional business-oriented base by bringing the noise multimedia (also see TiVo).
Somewhat related, I finally got some hands-on time with the Blackberry Bold yesterday…. It’s truly a beautiful handset, and felt solidly-constructed. This Slacker integration may just seal the deal for me. Which leads to the question: How many phones does one man need?
Pandora’s online community person commented on my FriendFeed that they too are working on Blackberry support. The more, the merrier. Though Slacker’s offline mode is a huge selling point.
It’s goes offline, and I think it does a better job of creating custom stations. Now they just need some more community features so I can try out other people’s creations. There is a function to see other custom stations, but it’s pretty stinky. Hope they improve it.
Which models of Blackberry will Slacker work with once it comes out?? I’m on the verge of getting the At&T 8820 thru work….leary of whether it’ll work with it.