Pure launches first DAB+-upgradeable car adaptor

Pure Digital has launched the first DAB+-upgradeable car adaptor called the Highway. The Highway, which costs £70, uses an FM transmitter to broadcast the DAB audio on a spare FM frequency so that it can be received via the car's aerial and played back on a normal car stereo. The Highway is meant to be attached to the windscreen of a car like sat navs are, and it also has an input socket to allow connection of an MP3 player as well as a headphone socket so that it can be used as a personal radio when away from the car. 

Unfortunately, Pure Digital is hiding the fact that the Highway is DAB+-upgradeable by not mentioning this fact on any of the web pages for the product, nor was it mentioned in the press release for it, and the only place it's mentioned that it is DAB+-upgradeable is at the bottom of the last page of the factsheet for the product, which I doubt many people will bother reading because they would expect that all of the information about the product would be included on the web pages for it. Pure Digital is obviously hiding this information from consumers because it doesn't want news about DAB+ making DAB radios obsolete to affect sales of its to-be-obsolete DAB radios. But considering that DAB+ stations will likely be launched in about 3 years' time, I think Pure Digital has a duty to its customers to be honest about the issue of DAB+.

It was only a matter of time before a product like this appeared since the legislation was relaxed on low-power FM transmitter devices that were already being used in large numbers to allow MP3 players' audio to be played back on car stereos -- or on other devices with an FM radio. Only a minuscule percentage of cars are fitted with DAB as standard at the moment, so there's a large market for a product like this, and it's also relatively difficult and expensive to retrofit DAB car stereos because car stereos are an integral part of the dashboard for most modern cars. 

Also, the fact that there are so few cars that have DAB will be one of the biggest stumbling blocks to switching off FM, although there seems to be no danger that FM will be switched off before 2020 due to DAB sales now being massively behind target -- annual DAB sales are predicted to be 50% lower than earlier forecasts for 2008, so FM is safe for a very, very long time. 

Although I thnk a device like the Highway is a good idea, I don't think it will be the catch-all panacea for the problem of getting DAB into cars, because not everybody will want to put a device like this on their windscreen, not least because they would have to remove it all the time so that it isn't a target for thieves. To be honest, the way things are going it wouldn't surprise me if FM will still be transmitting in 2025...