After much soul searching, I have to say it's got potential.
but, it's not making much use of that potential.
And, their biggest selling point is that the "HD" in their product is mistaken for "High Definition" and, I'd venture to say that most people that fall for this can't even tell the difference. ("Dude, I just got me a hi def radio! It sounds gnarly!") ok, so I'm dating myself here
The sound is, well, acceptable for non-critical listening but that shouldn't be too much of an impediment for it. Lots and lots of people listen to crappy MP3 recordings and don't mind.
But, the availability seems to be the hang-up here. When other systems* came into the marketplace, the inventors/licensors went out of their way to make it palatable for manufacturers to include it in their products at little or no extra cost, thereby making it a "freebie" to he consumer. The more consumers that got the stuff, the more ingrained into the fabric of the system it became. Those pennies of licensing fees seem to add up.
At the heyday of cassettes decks, and even today, you're hard-pressed to find one without some form of Dolby NR or another and look where Dolby is today.
As I say, a lot of us audiogeeks aren't really ready to part with $$ for an inferior product of unproven nature and Joe Sixpack, who would be their most likely target, doesn't seem willing to pay a premium for it either, assuming that hardware was readily available, which isn't the case anyway.
Ibiquity is gonna have to wise up if it wants to be a playa.
Unless, of course, the government pulls a fast one on us like they just did for TV, but at least digital TV is a marked improvement over analog TV and they ARE mandating inexpensive converter boxes aand offering coupons to help the sting. "HD" radio isn't.
* like FM stereo, MTS stereo and Dolby NR for tape decks