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The Next Keurig Will Make Your Coffee With a Dash of "DRM"

Posted by samzenpus on from the pirate-coffee-is-the-best-coffee dept.

FuzzNugget writes "Apparently seeking to lock competitors out of the burgeoning single-serve coffee market, Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, maker of the popular Keurig coffee machines, will make their new machines work with licensed pods only. GMCR's CEO confirmed this in a statement: 'The much-anticipated ‘Keurig 2.0’ single-cup brewing system with ‘interactive readability’ (that doesn’t work with unlicensed/copycat pods) will offer such “game-changing functionality” that consumers - and unlicensed players - will want to switch.'"

4 of 769 comments (clear)

  1. Why? by B33rNinj4 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Is it really so hard to just grind the beans and brew it yourself? I do this every morning.

    1. Re:Why? by roc97007 · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Downside : a normal coffee brew process generates 6-12 cups of Joe.

      I guess we could all switch to a press ... but that's a bit messy and requires a stand alone heating method (I've not the space to keep a proper tea kettle on my office desk)

      Keurig provides a clean single-cup solution

      It creates a lot of waste, though. Trendy, but not very green. Kind of like the personal electronics industry.

      --
      Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
    2. Re:Why? by carlhaagen · · Score: 4, Interesting

      It's about the cost, not the coffee or the effort. High price tags attract people who suffer the "spender syndrome" - dishing out a lot of money on something even plain or generic gives these people a feeling of being above the average, being set aside from the rest of us, of enjoying something that is "exclusive" only to their kind.

      It's like when you find the exact same piece of generic furniture sold at (but not designed by) IKEA in some upstreet furniture shop - IKEA would call it "ROBUST" (or whatever) and sell it for $89, while the other "boutique" will call it "Multimedia bench in Nordic pinewood" at thrice the pricetag. People with money will buy it, and they will feel like they did a better deal than paying $89 at IKEA. It's one of the oldest tricks in the book of retail.

  2. That $30 Mr. Coffee Espresso maker... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    That $30 Mr. Coffee espresso maker that breaks down after two years actually makes better economic sense. I amortized the busted unit over two years (sometimes longer) and achieved $0.57/shot espresso. Keurig can suck it.