Poll: iPod owners clamor for built-in FM

iPod owners are most likely to want an internal FM radio, according to a new survey by Jacobs Media. The study group says that 43 percent of all its iPod-owning respondents (and a third of all respondents) wanted the ability to tune broadcast music without requiring Apple's Radio Remote, even when given the choice of more conventional expansion -- including higher capacities and video playback in smaller models, the report says. Almost half (49 percent) used their iPods in their cars, however, suggesting that many were using the device as a replacement for car radio rather than as an add-on.

The survey, which covered an admittedly predisposed group of 25,000 subscribers to rock radio station listeners, also showed that many more listeners owned an iPod or another digital music player, stopping just short of the halfway mark at 47 percent of every radio listener covered in the study. Half of those that didn't own an iPod were also planning to buy one within the year.

Apple has largely refrained from listing its buyers' most heavily requested features, but said that gapless playback was the top requested update when the company introduced its latest iPods in September 2006.