Why dont Powerful Smartphone dont have radio feature?

[cool.dx.rip]

It makes me wonder why they dont have support for radio.Does folks dont listen radios??it have become tradition to dont have radio in smartphones.Do u know why they dont have it?

 

[zaydq]

Not sure what phones don't... But mine does? I don't recall if my iPhone did... But lots of people nowadays opt to not use the feature anyway. Like I said though, my HTC one has it.

 

[rcpratt]

I must admit, I don't get this either. I enjoyed it on my HTC TBolt when I had it.

 

[RandomFool]

A lot of the Windows Phones have them but they were disabled until the last update. Personally I never use that feature. Most radio stations have too many ads and not enough songs for my tastes. I've got too many other better options on my phone (Pandora, Amazon Cloud, local storage). Plus I have free XM in my car and that's awesome.

 

[Muyoso]

Because why would anyone want to listen to the radio when there are like a hundred better ways to listen to music on a smartphone? Maybe one out of a hundred people would ever use the feature. Radio is awful, at least here in the US.

 

[Fingolfin269]

I wouldn't mind this feature mainly as a backup in the event I need news and the network is down.

 

[thedosbox]

I wouldn't mind this feature mainly as a backup in the event I need news and the network is down.

Precisely. We had a storm that cut power for two days, and FM radio was the only way to keep up to date with what was happening.

Anyhow, I assume the OP is asking specifically about Android phones. Android doesn't include any API for FM radio support, so OEM's can't be bothered to include it as a feature any more.

 

[Red Storm]

Any radio station I would bother listening to has online streaming on their site or an app that let's you stream.

 

[luv2liv]

i do wish more phones have it, in case of emergency.
and my phone does have FM radio

 

[ControlD]

Because why would anyone want to listen to the radio when there are like a hundred better ways to listen to music on a smartphone? Maybe one out of a hundred people would ever use the feature. Radio is awful, at least here in the US.

Who says everyone listens to the radio for music? There are other types of programming out there, and much of it is local and thus impossible to find online.

 

[rcpratt]

Another use - local sports. Online streams of sports radio stations generally and almost always are unable to air the actual event on their stream.

 

[tvdang7]

I wouldn't use it but i do wish all smartphones have IR blaster to control tvs .

 

[Tom]

maybe because of battery life.

 

[corkyg]

Never considered it for my smartphone, but I do have Sirius-XM on my 'Droid tablet. It is really nice.

 

[khha4113]

Precisely. We had a storm that cut power for two days, and FM radio was the only way to keep up to date with what was happening.

Anyhow, I assume the OP is asking specifically about Android phones. Android doesn't include any API for FM radio support, so OEM's can't be bothered to include it as a feature any more.

It did as I remember using FM radio on my old LG Thrill 4G. Samsung had FM radio app on their Galaxy S series up to S3 , I believe. Samsung Galaxy player does have functioning FM app.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tbAT3xqI63w

I found this article explained why OEM as Samsung no longer included FM radio feature on theirs.
http://gadgets.ndtv.com/mobiles/news/samsung-explains-why-galaxy-s4-doesnt-come-with-fm-radio-355456

Our studies show a trend shift of interest to digital broadcasting, specifically - focus on listening to music content in social networks or on the channel YouTube. The flagship model of our products are focused on customers who use digital content, which use modern formats and channels of information consumption.​

 

[Crono]

I've got it on my HTC One and on my cheap ZTE Open, too.

I think it's just one of those features manufacturers treat as a possibly minor differentiating extra but not an essential. Dedicated radios are far better for battery life, but it's definitely a nice thing to have.

 

[zerogear]

It one point it was because they couldn't fit both LTE radio plus FM antenna. Nowadays, I'm not sure

 

[nOOky]

Another use - local sports. Online streams of sports radio stations generally and almost always are unable to air the actual event on their stream.

Exactly this. I run or bike trails and it's nice to listen to football games on the FM radio of my Motoactv, I can't do that on my smart phone but wish I could. I don't always sit inside in front of the t.v. when it's nice out, and the local FM announcer does a better play by play than the t.v. announcer anyway.

 

[pantsaregood]

Verizon apparently requested that radio hardware not be included on the Nokia Lumia 928. No idea why, but it apparently isn't in there. The 920/925 (which are otherwise the same phone) have radio hardware, as do other Lumias. Even my 520 has radio.

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

These features never really made it big in the US interestingly enough. I still find it somewhat useful. It's less battery intensive than streaming over the network. Considering the iPhone never had it, HTC phones never really spread across all 4 networks, the Galaxy S1 and S2 had them? But that was pretty much it. I guess not enough people here cared.

And good point above. Nokia has had FM radios in their smartphones forever since the Symbian days. Perhaps the international crowd is more interested in it?

I kinda do hope the Nexus 5 has one.

 

[notposting]

Verizon apparently requested that radio hardware not be included on the Nokia Lumia 928. No idea why, but it apparently isn't in there. The 920/925 (which are otherwise the same phone) have radio hardware, as do other Lumias. Even my 520 has radio.

Worst part is (as the rumor goes) that it is included in the chipset, but per Verizon they simply didn't bother to connect the headphone jack to the system. So a tiny trace on the PCB, probably saving them $0.0000000000000001 cents per device, and voila, no radio.

Verizon D:

 

[paperwastage]

It one point it was because they couldn't fit both LTE radio plus FM antenna. Nowadays, I'm not sure

a lot of FM radios (on phones) use the headphone wire itself as the antenna


basically, a lot of BT/WiFi SoC contain FM radio support as well... but the manufacture either used the lower end SoC or didn't connect the FM part of the SoC (maybe FM radio requires more FCC testing, or licensing?)

and of course, the carriers prefer you to use (and pay) data... so they push for stuff like online radio (iHeartRadio, TuneIn)


anyways, if you want a backup FM radio, this product looks good-> Sony MW1 or the older MW600
basically it's a bluetooth dongle that works standalone for FM radio

http://store.sony.com/p/Sony-Androi...Headset-Earphones-Earpieces-Wireless/en/p/MW1
http://store.sony.com/webapp/wcs/st...y?productId=8198552921666198163&storeId=10151

 

[cool.dx.rip]

a lot of FM radios (on phones) use the headphone wire itself as the antenna


basically, a lot of BT/WiFi SoC contain FM radio support as well... but the manufacture either used the lower end SoC or didn't connect the FM part of the SoC (maybe FM radio requires more FCC testing, or licensing?)

and of course, the carriers prefer you to use (and pay) data... so they push for stuff like online radio (iHeartRadio, TuneIn)


anyways, if you want a backup FM radio, this product looks good-> Sony MW1 or the older MW600
basically it's a bluetooth dongle that works standalone for FM radio

http://store.sony.com/p/Sony-Androi...Headset-Earphones-Earpieces-Wireless/en/p/MW1

now we got it as a market policy of carrirers

 

[paperwastage]

now we got it as a market policy of carrirers

well, the phone I have (Oppo Find 5) isn't carrier-subsidized.. but it still didn't implement FM radio even though the BT/WiFi SoC supports it

blame laziness / other priorities

 

[Mopetar]

Putting an antenna in the phone would take up a lot of space, especially for AM. Most people just don't care enough to make it a big selling point.