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Apple to Buy TiVo?
vallette writes "Reuters is reporting that Apple may be interested in buying TiVo. Seems like a good fit to me. Both companies stock price is up on the rumor."
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Not sure if the bandwidth requirements are there yet, but it would be an interesting proposition. iPod::iTMS, TiVo::iMVS (iMovie Video Store). Given TiVo's crapping on the Mac lately by not supporting AAC and no Mac support for TiVo2Go, I think this is purely wishful-thinking on the analyst's part.
"The objective of securing the safety of Americans from crime and terror has been achieved." -- John Ashcroft
Call me crazy, but based on the last few financial quarters, I'm guessing that Steve jobs has a better handle on his business than you do. If he does this deal, it's going to be because he thinks he can make it work.
WTF is up with the blue plastic crack? How many current Apple products come in blue plastic?
Why yes, I AM a rocket scientist!
More importantly, Apple has the sizable cash reserve to prop TiVo up until a way can be found to keep the device from losing money. iMovie store a possibility there. On the other hand, why would Apple want to take on a company that is losing money? Does TiVo have any IP that Apple needs? Any engineers that Apple wants to hire but can't pry away from TiVo? If all Apple is going for is a good PVR device for some future Mac... why not leverage your own brand and build your own? Apple has the tech and the cash to do it... do they really need TiVo for a mere PVR?
I think that it is likely that Apple will get into the PVR business, probably once the CableCard 2.0 standard is finalized and it becomes possible for 3rd party devices to replicate and extend the function of cable boxes.
As a TiVo owner, I'd like to see Apple buy TiVo.
But as an Apple stockholder, I don't see what Apple gets out of the deal.
DVR technology? It's no great secret. There are open-source DVRs. If they want to buy the technology, Elgato is probably cheaper, and their stuff already runs on OS X.
The TiVo brandname? Apple is probably one of the few companies with little to gain from the Tivo name. Apple already has more brand recognition than TiVo, and they'd to better to merchandise a hypothetical Apple DVR as "the company that brought you the iPod" than on the basis of the less well known TiVo name.
The TiVo interface? It's impressive for a consumer electronics product, but nothing special by Apple standards. Presumably, Apple would want to roll their own, as they did for iPod.
Tivo's current customers? If they aren't making a profit for TiVo, why would they make one for Apple? Besides, Apple presumably will want to introduce something like the iTunes Music Store for HD video. This will require H.264 for efficient content delivery. Current TiVo hardware can't handle this. Presumably, current TiVo owners will be looking to upgrade in the next few years to a DVR with HD capability. Why shouldn't it be an Apple instead of a TiVo?
TiVo's patents? This is the only thing I can think of that Apple might want. But I'm not sure how crucial they are. They certainly haven't stopped cable companies from handing out competing DVRs, or Elgato from implementing one on the Mac. Still, I suppose that it is possible that TiVo has some patent that would be crucial to the kind of user experience that Apple hopes to create.
Eliminating a potential competitor for the DVR market? Again, perhaps, but at the moment TiVo isn't seeming like that big a threat.
Content suppliers are the ones who will have to meet consumers halfway and if what's been going on with the DMCA, Broadcast Flag, and other nonsense, I don't see this changing.
Actually, Steve Jobs might be the one guy who can do this. Remember, he's not just a potential DVR manufacturer, he is also, through Pixar, a content producer himself. So as he did with iTunes, he may well be able to work out a DRM scheme that is acceptable to the industry, yet not unacceptable to the average consumer.
1) Why would a TiVo need to run on OS X?
2) Why would it be difficult to port the actual PVR software to OS X?
3) Why would it cost you $699?
4) Why would it be in blue plastic?
I suspect it would cost $499 and come in a Mac mini shaped box as additional software, and it would integrate with some kind of media software, like iTunes, and use Rendezvous to stream it across the network to all your Macs/PCs, and it would be compressed in H.264
GPL Deconstructed
"Sanity is not statistical", George Orwell, "1984"
actually, you know what? I was going to moderate you +1, but I figured it's better just to post this: Why aren't there more people like you on slashdot? instead of the ordinary "slash and bash", you added the little "otherwise, great post" to the end.. and i thought that was awesome; a slashdot reader who DOESN'T have the soul purpose of bashing other people..
"Victory means exit strategy, and it's important for the President to explain to us what the exit strategy is." G.W.Bush
An Apple product in every home.
Think of possible upgrades. "Buy a computer AND a DVR" at a switch of a button you can browse the 'net on your hdtv, click a button and you're back to watching the shows you missed while browsing on the 'net. Hell, it wouldn't be so out of the ordinary that the DVR and OS can mingle together in some capacity (but not too much as they would want to keep the setup as simple as possible).
When people buy a second home computer, they're going to buy the type of computer that's already found controlling their TV.
Microsoft gained dominance by attacking the business market back in the 80s. Gaining dominance now means that a company needs to attack the home entertainment market.
And someone will bring up how the game systems are trying to do DVR work. They won't succeed nearly as well because their is no line of succession past those systems. An Apple branded Tivo could lead to an Apple/Tivo hybrid (separate hardware in the same enclosure, don't make the mistake of windows mce) that leads to people using an Apple as their primary computer. Apple can do this because they do a great job of homogenizing their brand. An XBox has no consumer friendly interoperatiblity (sp?) with a Windows box.
"Tread softly because you tread on my dreams"
TiVo would seem to fit much better into Steve Jobs's portfolio than into Apple's product line...
TiVo doesn't carry a huge amount of debt. It carries just $7.3 million in debt. It has $88.3 million in cash, so the debt is minimal. Unfortunately, TiVo's cash flow is seriously negative, so that $88.3 million might not last them very long.
Apple buys Tivo. Apple ads a DRM layer onto Tivo. Apple starts selling MPEG2 and 4 movies at iTunes. Apple lets you download movies and watch them on your big screen, whenever you want, somthing nobody else can offer. Apple releases an iPod with a color screen...
Tivo has a large HDD, a network connection, and a large installed base. If you go with MPEG2 (still the DVD standard) instead of MPEG4, you A: save yourself a lot of re-encoding costs and B: incentivize buying a newer model with a bigger hard drive.
This would be great. I don't think it's serious, but this would be great.
Don't forget, Apple bought the basis for iTunes and the iPod before making them over with good design.
The ______ Agenda
Developing from scratch would take what, a year minimum? These boxes have to be solid. You can't just throw MythTV into a system and start shipping.
Buying TiVo gives them a running start. They can always call it the Apple TiVo or the Mac TiVo if they want.
Jobs might stand the best chance at succeeding, certainly - but it will also come at some sort of price. My guess is - YOU will be the one paying it in the form of protected content, or limited types of content being available.
There is a reason why some music is not yet available on iTunes. Every company wants to own the online portion of this business and Apple - while they may be the biggest - is certainly not the only one. And we haven't even gotten to fighting with the big movie houses. You think Sony's Pictures division is going to be interested in supporting someone else's standard? I don't think so. 'Spiderman' is on it's way to a PSP near you but I'll be it would be a LONG time indeed before Jobs would be allowed to sell it.
What makes DVD ubiquitous is the fact that you can find tons of content of every type for it, and know that it will play on your player. TiVO has built a business on a relatively open platform - the user's cable tv.
I'm just not convinced that Apple needs TiVO to do 'iVids' or ultimately what this will get them.
"...Well, there's egg and bacon; egg sausage and bacon; egg and spam; egg bacon and spam; egg bacon sausage and spam..."
besides the fact that Apple computers actually look good :)
Yeah, Jobs is a salesman; a salesman who lead a company to producing the first Unix easy enough for your proverbial grandmother to use. Maybe he's not an engineer, but he's smart enough to listen to engineers and come away with something useful. He's not a movie director, but he's smart enough to listen to a movie director and come away with something useful.
This puts him way ahead of most the CEO pack. His repertoire of leadership practices extends beyond posturing and playing power games with his subordinates, although he certainly does those things well enough.
You may rightfullly despise Jobs' personal style with respect to his subordinates (as I do), but at this late date it's pretty clear he's not some empty suit. In particular, he is smart enough to understand the strategy of enlightened self interest. In that respect, his ties to the entertainment industry give him the credibility that walking in their shoes and talking their language brings.
So a Tivo/Apple marriage could potentially be a watershed event in the whole DRM affair.
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
Why can't I moderate something "Wrong" or at least "Grossly Misinformed"?
I'm sure the TiVo apologists will emerge soon to defend their baby to the death.
Okay, I'll bite. TiVo collects anonymous statistics. The annual "most-replayed Super Bowl moment" press release is a marketing gimmick. It makes the handful of people who still don't know what TiVo is sit up and say "wow, I wish I could do that."
Sure, there's the potential for them to connect those statistics to customer names and sell it to advertisers, but TiVo has built a solid reputation for being a company, like Google, that "gets it". They earned our trust years ago when they turned a blind eye to hacking, and they've done an admirable job of walking the line between customer satisfaction and entertainment industry lawsuits.
Let's put this in context. Google issues a press release every year about their Zeitgeist site. Are you upset that they keep statistics on top queries? Does it worry you that every search you do can be traced back to your IP address? Are you outraged that this info may be used to build databases for Google Suggest?
If so, then put your tinfoil hat back on and let's agree to disagree.
Ever since Steve Jobs took over, I have pumped $$$ into iPods, iTunes and accessories. And I have never bought an Apple product before. Tivo or not, I give him alot of credit for the company's success.