Pure releases first DAB+ upgradeable radio

Pure Digital, the market leading manufacturer of DAB radios, has released its first DAB+ upgradeable receiver, called the Siesta, which is, rather boringly, a clock radio with an RRP of £50. The software upgrade -- via the USB socket on the back of the product -- will probably cost a further "approximately 10-15 euros" (approx. £6.70 - £10 - according to a WorldDMB document) when it is made available, which will likely be later this year.

Unfortunately, Pure Digital is still effectively trying to hide the information that the Siesta is upgradeable to DAB+ from consumers, because there is no mention of it being able to be upgraded to DAB+ on the web pages for the product (since I wrote this article, Pure has added the following text to the 'Specs' page: "Future upgrade supported for DAB+." -- however, I still consider Pure to be trying to hide the fact that this product can be upgraded to DAB+, because this is one of its main features, so if Pure wasn't trying to hide this information it would have mentioned this feature on both the Intro and Features pages), nor was it mentioned in the press release for the product, and the only mention that it is DAB+-upgradeable is right at the bottom of the factsheet for the product, which very few people will bother to download because all of the information in it is also on the web pages for the product. Furthermore, the fact that it is upgradeable to DAB+ will only be mentioned on the box of the product rather than on the product itself.

The important issue here is about whether consumers in shops and people browsing online retailers' websites will be able to see whether this product can be upgraded to DAB+, and the simple fact here is that it is extremely unlikely that this information will be provided to consumers, which means that Pure is effectively hiding this information from them.

Ultimately, this hiding of information about DAB+ is designed to achieve one thing and one thing alone: to keep the sales of to-be-obsolete DAB radios as strong as possible over the next year or so until such a time as the majority of "DAB" receivers in the shops support DAB+ as standard -- by then the con will be complete, and a couple of million or so people will have unwittingly bought DAB radios without knowing that they're buying a product that won't be able to receive some of the stations that will launch just a couple of years or so after they've bought it. 

My opinion on this is very simple: The UK DAB industry should provide honest information about DAB+ and then leave it up to the consumers to decide whether they want to buy a DAB receiver now that won't be able to receive everything in a few years' time, or whether they want to wait and buy one that will be able to receive DAB+. And providing anything less than this level of information is not being honest with prospective buyers.

It will also be interesting to see how things change next year, because it is the current state of limbo we're in where there's very few receivers that can be upgraded to DAB+ available that is causing the information to be hidden. But Pure has got relatively ambitious plans to release new receivers to support DAB+ over the next 12 to 18 months, so I'd predict that once the majority of Pure's products in the shops support DAB+ their marketing will change quite abruptly from hiding the fact that their receivers support DAB+ to making it a prominent selling point to differentiate their products from some of the other manufacturers' receivers who haven't converted as many of their products to support DAB+. For example, Pure's biggest competitor is Roberts Radios, but they tend to release a lot of models whereas Pure concentrates on selling just a few, so come next year when most of Pure's products support DAB+ and most of Roberts' don't, I bet we'll see big illuminous yellow stickers proclaiming Pure's undying love for all things DAB+.

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