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If Apple Were to Buy TiVo... |
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 There are rumors swirling around the Inkernet (Thanks Dawn Miceli) about Apple poising itself to buy out the TiVo brand. While all the market analysts and rumor sites are saying that a buyout like this is very unlikely, I like to ask what if. What would the world be like if Apple entered this market?
If Apple were to actually buy TiVo what would be the implications of such a purchase? Would Apple partner itself with the TiVo brand to take full advantage of what they've has accomplished since entering the marketplace? The name TiVo invokes thoughts of pausing live television and recording your favorite shows to a hard drive for later viewing. The brand recognition Tivo has built is incredible. While most cable companies are offering their own Digital Video Recording (DVR) devices, the name TiVo is still used to convey to the end user exactly what the product does. After all who can forget one of the first TiVo commercials of the guy watching the football game and right before the kicker tries to kick the game winning field goal, the guy pauses live television and says a prayer before watching the outcome of the play. Anybody with an inner geek had to look at that commercial and be in awe of that idea. Could Apple use this to their advantage?
Would an idea like the fake iHome Media Centre become a reality? Would Apple consider teaming the power and beauty of OS X with the brand recognition of the name TiVo? Could the Mac Mini be the gateway drug to this idea becoming a reality? The Mac Mini is a great thing for Apple as it allows a lot more people to experience the joys of computing without the headaches and viruses of the common Windows-based machine. And now that Apple realizes that people are willing to buy machines like this, could future revisions of the Mini make it more like the iHome? The iHome really could become a reality. With the addition of a bluetooth wireless keyboard and mouse an iHome like device would make the end users entertainment center a total communications hub. With an ethernet port on the back, users could access the internet while watching their favorite show in a picture-in-picture-like set up or dialogue with friends and family about different programs they are watching live or stored in the hard drive.
A lot of the complaints about TiVo come from the fact that it is a subscription service while most DVR's offer the Tivo-like services for just a dollar or two more a month than the cost or of renting the digital cable box. If Apple entered this market would they keep the current subscription model or perhaps offer it as a part of the .Mac membership? Now if they added it as part of the .Mac membership it would essentially cost users $8.33 a month to get access to the TiVo-like features, the iDisk storage, .Mac e-mail access, and all the other advantages of a .Mac membership. The cost of renting my DVR box at home is roughly $9 dollars a month. So really I would be getting a lot of other advantages if this were the case. It is almost a no-brainer on which one I would choose.
All of these possibilities are very exciting, however one has to ask that if Apple really wanted to enter this market why wouldn't they do it under their own name. Apple really doesn't need a name like TiVo to make a product sell especially with all the name recognition they have been receiving due to the iPod and other recent innovations. Apple would be creating the hardware to make this work - why would they want to stamp the TiVo name on it? Apple's brand recognition conjures up the images of innovation and style. Adding the TiVo name would only be done to broaden awareness of the product much like what was done with the HP iPod.
While everyone is saying that Apple has no interest in entering this type of market, all i have to say is that Apple was also not interested in developing a headless Mac. We will all just have to wait and see what develops in this "never say never" world. |
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February 25 2005, 11:01 AM EDT, by |
Comments:
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| Jonahan |
2/25/05, 2:50 PM EDT |
Who is this guy? ;)
This makes sense, and if anyone can make DVR cool and work right, it's Apple. It might be a good time to try to takeover (and revolutionize) a fledgeling industry. The Mac mini as an iHome probably isn't that far off the mark. It's way more expensive than a DVR, but look at everything you can do with it (the whole iLife thing and much more).
That's it for me, G'night Inkernet!
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| nhmacusr |
2/25/05, 2:53 PM EDT |
I ahve had my complaints about the Mac Mini from the beginning. However, when I looked closer at the facts, I changed my opinion slightly. I still don't hink this is a machine to wow switchers. The whole marketing compaign for the Mini just seemed forced (as did the idea). But I later considered that it was a convenient tool to introduce the Mini. An excuse, really. It will be interesting how the year of DV unfolds and to see where the Mini goes. The Mini is just the first piece in a puzzle. Quicktime 7 and the H.264 codec is the second. I don't hink it is any coincidence that Steve walked out at the beginning of Macworld and said "See we can project HD isn't it big? Isn't it clear?" There is definately more to come.
Great article to get the gears turning. I read somewhere that TiVo was valued at something like $300 Million. At that price, I don't know if the rumor is true or not, it might be a good decision on brand recognition alone. Even if you don't use any of the technology.
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| Ains |
2/25/05, 6:36 PM EDT |
It's too bad the rumors been dismissed... waste of some good thinking. Well, maybe not exactly a waste, but you could have been thinking about my math homework for me instead of the article if you had some spare thinking to share....
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| Jonahan |
2/26/05, 6:18 PM EDT |
Heh... well only Smith Barney dismissed the rumor. And even if Apple isn't going to buy TiVo, or maybe just not right now, at least it indicated that Apple is checking into possibilties.
OR - maybe Apple just decided to do things in-house for cheaper.
(* spooky voice *) WE MAY NEVER KNOWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW
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| schizzylogic |
2/26/05, 9:42 PM EDT |
Uh. who the hell watches TV anymore? I haven't actively sat down to watch a "show" in over two years! TiVo is a worthless piece of crap that is doomed to fail! I don't understand who would think that it's at all useful?
Uh, oh, wow ... Sorry I was channeling Bill Palmer there for a second.
Anyway, apparently TiVo's market share is being eaten away by the cable companies who are "providing" DVR capabilities in their cable boxes. Apple would be smart to stay away from competing outright with the cable companies and instead offer something that enhances that whole experience. (Although I am surprised something hasn't been said to the cable companies about offering such devices ... it seems like a rather unfair advantage over others in that section of the consumer market. I mean what's next; you have to also use their TV to watch their content?)
Anyway, I think Apple should start to sew all their pieces together and show the world what a real media PC is actually capable of.
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| nhmacusr |
2/28/05, 8:52 AM EDT |
In many places the DVR that comes in the cable box is a crock. My sister has one and from her discription I would have thrown it in the pond already. The biggest pet peeve I would have is that she says it downloads shows that the cable company 'thinks' you would like based on your viewing habits, without you doing anything. So here is a device wasting my time and filling up disk space with crap I am never going to watch. No thanks.
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| Jonahan |
3/7/05, 8:01 AM EDT |
I have one from Dish Network and it's actually pretty cool. It doesn't download anything automatically, as it's pretty sparse on features, but maybe that's a good thing. It's a little slow to access the menus, but overall it's really sweet. I'd like to see what Apple could do with such techonology.
But hell, I'd like to see how Apple approached making an alarm clock for that matter, so I'm just a -bit- biased ;-)
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| John Davis |
3/9/05, 5:19 PM EDT |
There is a NEW DVR solution for all of us. Miglia has just launched the EvoTV (Give Tivo the (h)eave'o ) their external USB 2.0 hi res DVR, USB DivX Mpeg 2 Mpeg4 recording playback solution! It's on my website but I only sell to resellers - check the product out at www.miglia.com. Evolution TV - the way TV was meant to be.
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