San Francisco – U.K.-based Pure, the supplier of tabletop Internet radios and docking speaker systems, is launching its second docking speaker and plans later this year to further expand its selection.
The $189-suggested Contour100i docking speaker features an FM tuner and Apple certification for docking with iPods and iPhones. It also plays music from a docked iPad. It is available at Brookstone.com and Pure.com, but more retailers are in the works.
Sometime later the year, the company will launch a third docking speaker that will be the company’s first product with Apple AirPlay. That product, the Contour 200i Air, will incorporate an FM tuner and Wi-Fi and will ship sometime later this year at a suggested $269. It was previewed at International CES.
The company’s only other docking speaker is the $249 Contour, which features iPod/iPhone certification, iPad playback and FM tuner like the Contour 100i. The Contour, however, adds embedded Internet radio, music streaming from a Mac or PC, and Wi-Fi.
In lieu of embedded Internet radio, the new Contour 100i and the planned Contour 200i Air will come with free companion Internet radio app that runs on a docked Apple mobile device. The Pure Lounge App accesses more than 18,000 global Internet radio stations, on-demand programs, podcasts and ambient sounds. It also streams millions of music tracks via the Pure Music subscription service, expected to be available in North America later this year.
The Contour, Contour 100i and Contour 200i Air all feature a dome-like shape with revolving docking mechanism that revolves closed and flush with the speaker’s front face.
The 100i features 20 watts of amplification, slim-line remote, two alarms, sleep and snooze timers, aux input and headphone output.
Another docking product available from Pure is the $99 i-20, which is an iPhone/iPod docking base with no speakers but with 24-bit/192kHz DAC to connect to existing sound systems’ analog inputs. The i-20 also connects to sound systems via digital output.
Pure also offers four tabletop Internet radios and a docking three-piece tabletop stereo system.
