Showtime For Digital Video Recorders?
from the come-and-get-'em dept
Many people are saying that digital video recorders like the Tivo finally turned the corner this past holiday season. Many stores found that they couldn't keep up with demand. Of course, I think this might have had something to do with Tivo dropping the prices to next to nothing. However, I think that was a smart move, simply because everyone seems to be judging Tivo's success on how many customers they have - and not on profits (uh oh, that sounds familiar...). However, as more and more people get Tivo-like devices, I get the feeling it will encourage even more people to get them. Anyone (such as myself) who sees friends who have Tivos starts to get that yearning feeling to buy one themself. Either that, or they start calling up their friends at random times saying "oh, so I missed such-and-such on TV last week, and I'm coming over to watch it on your Tivo". Not that I would do such a thing. Or, well, not often. Well, at least I try to spread it around among different friends and different Tivos. And only until I buy one myself. Seriously.
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ummm - wrong
TiVo operates on the recurring revenue model - think razor vs. blades. they charge $9.99 a month to receive the service guide and their profit models are based on a large install base using the service - think cell phones.
as a matter of fact, it was TiVo's goal to greatly increase the base, even if losing money on the unit - think consoles like PS2 and Xbox - so that they could ink deals with other major players, eg Real Networks.
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Re: ummm - wrong
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