The Consumer Electronics Show was very good to Rhapsody. I chatted with some folks who were there and heard that a lot of people were very interested in the Rhapsody DNA functionality and how Rhapsody has integrated into TiVo, Denon, Sansa and Sonos. Rhapsody is packaging these as “Music as a service” playing off of the “software as a service” trend.

As part of this move - lots of new partnerships and devices were announced including:

- Philips Electronics announced an entire line of GoGear portable media devices with Rhapsody built-in. First players out during the first half of 2008

- Philips Electronics also announced Streamium home audio line that is Rhapsody Optimized. The Streamium NP1100, the first device in the line to launch, features a built-in PC Link, a black and white display, Internet radio connectivity and streaming from other PCs on the same Wi-Fi network. The NP1100 is expected to be available to consumers in the first half of 2008 with a MSRP of $149.

- iRiver announced a WiFi enabled iClix portable device to be launched in early 2008.

- Control4 (whom I had never heard of) will make Rhapsody available to consumers via their home entertainment automation installations. In a first for any digital music service, the Rhapsody/Control4 integration will give consumers the ability to use their home automation system to direct music from Rhapsody’s catalog to any room in the home through a simple touch screen remote. Rhapsody-enhanced Control4 systems are expected to be available in the first half of 2008.

These announcements in conjunction with the releases in 2007 of TiVo, Heir, Updated Sansa, Squeezebox, Denon and Sonos is giving Rhapsody an excellent position as an alternative to iTunes for music. Go Big!