Interesting Q&A with TiVo management:
http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb...d.php?t=532368
Fundamentally their problem seems to be that they have been driven by a hardcore of techie enthusiasts buying TiVo's own hardware whose needs and priorities are very different from the mass market. This has led them to be eclipsed by the new streaming entrants who offer a much simpler, cleaner user experience:
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On one hand you want to be able to deliver the control and customability to evey customer. On the other hand it can have the effect of creating far too many "in the weeds" features and a mess of the menus and options. The TiVo UI has become far to complex and require too many button presses to get what you want. We need to be better at knowing what you will want and getting it to you in the quickest way possible.
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This hints at the bind they are now in as a result and the financial pressures they must be under:
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TiVo is simply unable to build its business on the backs of its ever diminishing group of loyalists. We did 150,000 activations in our last fiscal year. Compare that to the millions of streamers out there, and the tens of millions of DVRS out there and you see that we’ve got a lot of ground to make up. In order to win for the the company, and for YOU, we need to expand our market. If we fail to do this, we’re not going to be able to do much of anything, We think we’ve got a plan for both the mass market AND for enthusiasts.
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Personally I'm not convinced they can succeed serving both those markets.
However:
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What I can tell you is that Personalization is an enormous priority at TiVo. I'm optimistic about progress next year.
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Worth a read through.