CROWDCTRL

The PSP I knew about. It was the XM2Go player that surprised me this Christmas, and it was a gift I’ve been coveting for quite some time.

Major League Baseball’s agreement with XM satellite radio is XM’s killer app for me. Every single game, all season long?!

But the price tag was also a killer, and along with all the hidden fees, extra crap you had to install, and the pricey hardware, I hadn’t ever make the jump.

But this season they put the XM2Go portable XM receiver on sale, and so I happily found it under the tree by my PSP and MVP UMD game disc (that’s another conversation).

And to my surprise, the package came with all the accessories I could ever want. Bucking the standard tradition of giving you the smallest amount of hardware possible (see: cell phones, ipods, any other electronic), the Delphi XM2Go came with a home kit, car kit, and portable kit—complete with car charger, vent hookup, 2 antennas, a docking station, earbuds, hip holster, and a fake leather case.

Literally, I don’t have to run out and buy a thing to make it easy as pie to use and enjoy the player, and in fact I’m more of a fan of the thing because of all the cool stuff it came with.

Of course, you’ve got the $13/mo subscription fee to swallow. And the activation page didn’t work in any of my OSX browsers, but don’t you know I was so pumped about all my free accessories that I whipped out my PC and plunked down my credit card for first month’s fee (since the activation was free for onliners).

It’s pretty simple, eh? Take out all the barriers to enjoying your product and users will be happy to come and use it. Delphi/XM cut the price on the player, threw in a ton of accessories, and waived the activation fee to get me tuned in and hooked to the service as quickly and painlessly as possible. That’s good stuff.