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Why TiVo's Founders Crashed and Burned With Qplay
Velcroman1 (1667895) writes "Michael Ramsay and Jim Barton created a revolution with TiVo, a device that challenged the notion that we had to watch TV shows when they aired. And they hoped to do it again with Qplay, a device that challenged the notion that short-form videos had to be consumed one at a time, like snacks instead of meals. Qplay streamed curated queues of short-form Internet video to your TV using a small, simple box controlled by an iPad app. So what went wrong? Unlike TiVo, the Qplay box was difficult to justify owning, and thevalue of the service itself is questionable. And as of last week, Qplay is closed."
He just got really lucky the first time.
Trying to predict what people want is impossible outside of the basics of life:food, water, shelter, ....
I love my Tivo, but - I also owned a VCR for the twenty years prior to my first Tivo. Time shifting has been around for 40+ years now.
#DeleteChrome
It's hard to buy something when you don't know it exists.
Perhaps they should have tried advertising.
I should use this sig to advertise my book ISBN-13 : 978-1501515132.
is why it failed.
the whole concept could have been implemented as an app or web site only.. no separate purchased hardware.
any device that can be replaced by a free app will fail.
Who logs in to gdm? Not I, said the duck.
I've got a couple of little boxes under my TVs that: can be controlled by my phone or a tablet (and not only Apple-produced ones), can stream video (and not only from 1 specific company). Maybe there's some niche they could've marketed to, but it doesn't come to mind.
It is pitch black. You are likely to be eaten by a grue.
I used to have a TiVo, and I loved it. Then for various reasons I had to cancel my subscription. TiVo took it upon themselves to double charge me the cancellation fee. When they refunded my money, they withheld around $10 or so and claimed it was for taxes or something.
I didn't really care about the $10, it was about the principle of the matter. If you make a mistake and double charge me, you should give me back exactly what you took by accident, including any measly taxes. Instead the person I spoke to on the phone was incredibly rude to me and as a result TiVo lost a customer for life.
No one cares what your captcha was
Houston TX, USA
And, what with score 1, your fame doesn't even last you 15 minutes.
Tivo customer since 2001. I've never heard of QPASS. In all honesty, I can't stand the tivo UI anymore. A year ago I turned off the stupid tivo "blip" sound effects, it made a huge fcking deal. As of this week, my tivo UI was updated (finally) with a more modern UI. I have yet to see it flip back to the 10 year old Standard-Definition interface that they used forever. If there was a serious contender that didn't involve using Comcast's box or building my own, I'd do it... but then again, when the fck is everything going to stream? I have no need for comcast, except that content providers seem unwilling to figure it out.
I made this: http://www.bpftpserver.com
Dude that founded Victoria's Secrets sold it because he KNEW he could start another lingerie mail order company that would blow away VS....
I believe he jumped from the Golden Gate bridge when he went bankrupt...
At least these guys are still alive? Yes?
Qplay shut down 6 days ago, and only now are people realising. I think that pretty much sums up this pointless product.
The TiVo tragedy is one thing but when will people finally look back at the sad tale of WebTV?!?
what the hell was qplay?
That might be one of the many issues it suffered from.
This failure is quite simple: The Tivo solved a problem This QPlay did not.
Michael Ramsay and Jim Barton created a revolution with TiVo, a device that challenged the notion that we had to watch TV shows when they aired.
Wow, how old are you*? Do you even know what a VCR is?
*and by "you," I obviously don't mean Velcroman1, the story's submitter, because he didn't actually write any of it.
systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
Oh, I volunteered in a hospice and the octogenarian told me iPads are the coolest thing for people older than baby boomers. It's like a simpler, less useful version of an android tablet. Whenever I see a Kickstarter or product favour Apple over the other operating system that happens to obliterate the market it makes me cringe at the hypothetical stubbornness and lack of foresight that is necessary to develop for Apple.
When the DVD recorder broke, I searched and found that this is the only piece of electronics that has appreciated in value. The one I bought for 500$ brand-new was selling in eBay for 1800$ four year old, but in working condition. Integration with TV-guide listing got broken after analog broadcasts were discontinued. All the cable tv vendors are in collusion with TiVo. All of them want 15$ a month.
If the insanely stupid patent monopoly had not been granted to TiVo we would be seeing 1TB, HD-recording hard disk players with full integration with TV-listings for 100$ flat without any monthly fees.
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
Tivo did everything they could to strangle the market.
And they strangled it to death. Congrats, you just killed your own cash cow. Enjoy fucking off & dying.