There you go, the return of late fees.
Wait, this isn’t really news now is it. The late fees never really left. They were just massaged with some marketing flim-flam. Yes I whipped out flim-flam. Talk about a royal backfire in the face. Consumers are not stupid - telling me “No More Latefees!” and then secretly charging them if you hold your movie for more than two weeks will not fly. Blockbuster should have bought NetFlix when they had the chance. Too little too late.
Blockbuster wasn’t agile enough to sense changing market conditions. They are now getting trounced by NetFlix and soon TiVo - players who are willing to take a gamble and reap the benefits.
Here’s the take home from all of this… if you do not want to stay flexible, fresh and ontop of your game get in the back of the line behind the people that will. That’s keepin’ it real…
Tivo is a sinking ship of a model. Nice product but the entire business model is not self-supporting. Broadcast flags and DRM are flogging the machines and the user-irritation level is increasing. Tivo will fail also because other alternatives exist that are free. Tivo will follow the path of the RIAA with CD media. The MythTV, Windows Media Center PCs, and soon to come Apple version with mac-mini integration will slaughter the feature set offered by Tivo. No sane human will purchase the Tivos no matter how deep the rebate. Local cable providers also cashing in on the publicity of DVR technology will also reap the benefits of Tivo’s demise. Finally newer HD TVs are also starting to bundle an integrated Tivo. The future is certain…Tivo must change their business model or become a hardware manufacturer to the cable companies and television manufacturers…else they will be floating belly up worse than Nemo with Darla.
Har har. Well said by a non-TiVo owner.
Perhaps by them being a sinking ship you mean the sole feature of being a DVR. You are right, just being solely a DVR is no longer a feature but a necessity in this class of device. The TiVo has grown up and does much, much more…
Sit down infront of one and check out some of the features in the last year - Home Media Apps (open source development project at http://tivohme.sourceforge.net/), tivoToGo continues to push the envelope with transfers to PSP and iPodVideo coming out (http://www.tivo.com/4.9.19.asp), Tivo Desktop serves to funnel your home media to the TiVo. More recently is their integration with Yahoo and Live365 radio.
DRM problem you say? The DRM is insanely easy to strip off. TiVo knows this but I assure you their intent is not to stop fair use but rather keep them from court battles. Apple with iTunes changes the DRM with each release. The TiVo desktop has kept the same DRM throughout releases? No coincidence there. Heck there is even a model with a DVD recorder and every network-connected TiVo can use your computer to burn a DVD.
The only feature the cable companies have at this point is HD-capable recording. Watch TiVo release a HD recorder soon. Cable providers have none of the broadband-connected features that TiVo offers. Online scheduling - can’t do it. Transfer shows to your computer - can’t do it. Acts as a media integration center - can’t do it.
Sure there are free apps out there, but honestly does the average person want to fiddle with the purchase, asthetics, power requirements and setup up a dedicated Freevo or MythTV box? I sure don’t. The $13 a month is well worth the ease of use and convenience.
I agree that TiVo is in a “make or break” phase. As they push forward with tests of movie downloads and recent partnership with Intel, be certain they are on the bleeding edge. Innovation and reinventing themselves is exactly what will keep them one step ahead of the copycats. Only time will tell how it all pans out…