By BRUCE MEYERSON AP Business Writer
NEW YORK (AP) -- Motorola Inc., after nearly a year of vague pronouncements, unveiled Tuesday an ambitious music radio service for cell phones that also plays over car and home stereos.
Motorola iRadio, featuring 435 channels, would be sold by wireless service providers to their subscribers for between $7 and $10 per month _ a few dollars cheaper than the satellite radio networks that would be among the phone-based service's immediate rivals.
No wireless carriers have signed on yet to carry iRadio, which may also be adapted for non-Motorola phones if carriers request it, company officials said.
In some ways, iRadio more closely resembles a vast "podcast" network rather than a traditional radio broadcast.
Motorola expects about 90 percent of its content to be loaded on phones from the Internet over a personal computer, rather than broadcast over the air, in this case a cellular network. That would mean less of a strain on the limited capacity wireless operators have for mobile calls, e-mail and Internet services.
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