4 ms·

Okay, but at least on my phone (OnePlus One) the antenna to the FM radio is grounded. My guess is that they didn't think it was worth it to design an antenna or

Okay, but at least on my phone (OnePlus One) the antenna to the FM radio is grounded. My guess is that they didn't think it was worth it to design an antenna or otherwise support the feature. Am I wrong to think that other companies act the same? What else could be a reason to disable the FM radio in a phone? When you're designing a product, every feature costs money to develop and support, and in the race to the bottom nature of consumer electronics it might make sense to not support FM radio. Most of my friends (at least the normal ones) seem to prefer something like Pandora over FM for background music. What's stopping someone from selling a phone that has a functional FM radio? I usually say the following jokingly, but this seems like a problem for the free market to fix.

ZenoArrow 10y ago
> "What's stopping someone from selling a phone that has a functional FM radio?" Nothing. They already exist. You could buy one today. I'm sure if you looked on Amazon or eBay you could find plenty of unlocked phones with working FM radios. Pair that with a SIM from your network of choice and you're done. What's being discussed is about networks disabling the radio on contract phones.
pjc50 10y ago
this seems like a problem for the free market to fix. The market for phones in the US is not free because they're generally tied to carriers, and the market for carriers is highly unfree because it's a natural monopoly with a weak government regulator.