TiVo Suddenly Realizes TiVo Should Be A Platform
from the too-little,-too-late dept
What’s amazing about this one is that it actually took TiVo this long to realize that they needed to be providing less of a product and more of a platform. By now, it’s definitely looking like too little, too late, but TiVo is releasing a software development kit to let others create apps that run on TiVo. This would have been a good idea three or four years ago — but makes little sense these days. TiVo still has a great interface, but they’re losing the market to those who have a better channel into the home. While it’s definitely a good idea, it’s hard to see this being enough to help TiVo survive. Still, it might be interesting to see what some developers come up with — and see how quickly they get copied into things like MythTV.
Comments on “TiVo Suddenly Realizes TiVo Should Be A Platform”
TiVo is better than a multimedia PC still
WIth a price point of $100, most people will ignore the monthly fee. Something like TiVo is still a draw for the average person.
I have a TiVo in the family room for the normal people to use. I have a multimedia PC with Sage TV, multiple capture cards and a huge amount of disk space in MY office/home theater.
THe family doesn’t want to go near it. They prefer the TiVo. Both are equally easy to use, but the PC still has that stigma of “pc” attached to it. My wife doesn’t think of using the TiVo as using a computer to watch TV (even though it is).
SHe uses the laptop on the kitchen table for computer stuff and the TV for TV … only TV.
I’m pretty sure this is the way the average person would prefer to do it. Much like you dont’ want an overn with a refrigeration unit or a blender that toasts.
leave the single use appliances to what they do best.
Re: TiVo is better than a multimedia PC still
WAP factor is important but this is where a good development kit can go a long way to covering the gaps . My MCE and tivo and MythTv should all be able to share large centralized storage seamlessly and move HD content smoothly etc. It’s the proprietary locked systems that tick me off and then ultimately my wife because she dosn’t see why she can’t watch something from there over here. My HDTivo has a network card and USB2 ports yet I can’t use them because TV and/or D*TV both think they get to tell me how everything should work (and in Tivo’s case that they have to suck up to the networks rather then me, the paying customer) rather then building intuitive open standards that encourage growing the market they need to survive. They should of had kits like this out years ago, they should be helping people push the limits of the tech can do instead of barely being able to get D*TV to push basic function passes they just show how unready their high end product was for release. I won’t cry for Tivo they killed themselves by pandering to the networks instead of the their real customers who pay the bills and in the last 18 months they have done not one thing to deserve anyone loyalty.
Tivo as platform vs. Windows IPTV
I totally agree that its about time Tivo decides to wisen up and realize its the software not the box that people pay for. If only they went along this route 4 years ago, they’d have some chance against Microsoft.
Microsoft signed their third large cable/telco provider (verizon) and it looks like theres no stopping Windows IPTV, and where’s the competition? Tivo, based on linux, would have been cheaper and more open, but oh well.