Thursday, January 17, 2008

Apple: Buy TiVo to Save Apple TV

Poor Apple. The company shows off a lighter that air laptop and a revised Apple TV, and the stock tanks.

Kudos to Mr. Jobs for admitting that the original Apple TV was the dog that I said it was. A rare act of humility, and the second version is better, but not enough for it to be a success of any kind, much less a runaway like the iPod or iPhone.

Adding rentals will help as ordering from the sofa, and paying $3.99 and not having to worry about returns will be preferable for many folks to making Blockbuster runs. But, you still have to spend $229 for a box, so it would take hundreds of movie rentals for the price to be competitive.

However, Apple TV can't yet compete with the TiVo, Comcast, Sling Media and Netflix offerings on many fronts.

TiVo has taken the bold and necessary step of integrating RSS feeds for watching web content online. Comcast's video on demand and  cheap DVR services  are  superior and more convenient. Netflix' free online viewing and all you can watch menu make it much more cost effective.

So Steve, if I can call you that. make an offer to TiVo now so that in 6 months after Apple TV continues to disappoint Wall Street and consumers, you can make the purchase public. TiVo and Apple would be much stronger together than they are apart (not that Apple's stockholders have anything to complain about). Work together on an advertising model (not Apple's strong suit), and give us the products that we want.

Posted By John Gartner at 12:45 PM
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