I love my Slacker G2 device, but apparently too few other people are buying the hardware to make it a profitable endeavor. The company is shutting down production. This is not a big surprise since Slacker has been making the rounds on other mobile devices for a while now. However, there are features with the G2 that are limited or nonexistent on other Slacker-enabled products. For example, the Blackberry app requires a USB connection to archive music, and the iPhone app drops Slacker’s killer offline caching functionality. In contrast, with my G2 and Slacker Premium subscription ($7.50/month) I can save songs I like with one click and listen to both my library of music and Internet radio stations offline. That’s a great mobile music offering.

Presumably the Slacker app will improve on other mobile devices, but for now the departure of the G2 is a sad loss. If you’re interested, now is probably the time to start G2 hunting on eBay.