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Why Tivo will thrash HP, Microsoft | |
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| Time: 06:03 EST/11:03 GMT | News Source: the inquirer | Posted By: Chris Hedlund | ||
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HP HAS been trying to launch an "entertainment center" platform since 2000. Someone call Carly and tell her it's time to shoot the dog. Its first attempt launched in 2001 was a Linux-based device dedicated to playing music, hooked into an HP-proprietary "walled garden" for content and listed out at $1000 for a Celeron-based boxed with a 40 GB drive. Compaq had a competing device around the same price, but nobody in their right minds was going to burn $1000 for a castrated PC stuffed into a stereo box. Round two was launched in December 2004, with HP's Digital Entertainment Center. The new version is now built around Windows Media Center, rolls in a digital video recorder and up to two TV tuners, 802.11g, a wireless keyboard, lots of slots for flash media, a Pentium 4 processor, and a DVD-burner. List price on the entry-level box is $1500 and includes a 160GB drive. | ||
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| #1 By 9589 (66.57.197.131) at 1/31/2005 9:24:25 AM |
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Even if MCE computers aren't selling in mass numbers, TIVO isn't either (I enjoy my Dell 8400 MCE with media extender very much, thank you). If I want a TIVO like device, I'll stop by Time Warner and pick up a PVR. I'll skip the $100 TIVO charge and pay only $10 bucks a month instead of $13. Hey, if the PVR breaks I just take it back to Time Warner for a new one.
Meanwhile, TIVO the company is in the toilet. The stock has been trashed from nearly $14 to just below $4 today over 52 weeks. And while revenue has jumped this past year, TIVO hasn't made a profit in years. How do you spell loser = TIVO! |
| #2 By 2960 (156.80.64.60) at 1/31/2005 1:46:09 PM |
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#1,
You're right. You can get Tivo's for free :) TL |
| #3 By 1295 (216.84.210.100) at 1/31/2005 6:15:47 PM |
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#1 - You speak the truth
#4 - I would agree with you but it seems that plenty of people do want the things you are talking about with MCE. I do want all of those things and more. Granted many 30+ consumers won't be to excited about having a full blown pc in the living room. Those younger are going to buy it in droves. MS does have to create more of a reason to have a full computer in the living room to persuade those older consumers, which I think they are doing. TIVO was first to market but its kinda like Netscape's Browser, the market was bound to destroy them because they are selling something so easily provided by cable/satelite providers. I ALWAYS wanted a Tivo but the first DVR I "purchased" is costing me $10/m from Cox (Cable). MCE will be my first DVR purchase but its high price (which is well deserved considering its abilities) is causing me to put it below other priorities for the time being. Netscape did have its server market to keep it going, Tivo has the satelite industry. |
| #4 By 23275 (67.32.52.10) at 1/31/2005 6:30:22 PM |
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My puny little oufit has pre-sold over 100 high-end custom MCE units and the demand is extremely high.
In between our normal networks, servers, and the like, these are very much in demand. If a small little company is seeing that kind of interest, I can only imagine what others are seeing. BTW, "Every person" who has seen these in actual home use, wants one and buys one! I've never seen a product sell itself so easily. |
| #5 By 3339 (64.160.58.137) at 1/31/2005 7:14:40 PM |
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Mr Humpty, you want:
loud whirring fans? antivirus/antispyware signatures? you want the case to look silly? and you want it to cost more than $800? Because, I think you really don't but are afraid to admit that the MCEs need improvements. |
| #6 By 9549 (68.39.216.79) at 1/31/2005 7:49:49 PM |
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#4 People don't want a PC under their TV. The livingroom PC shouldn't have: loud whirring fans, the need to update antivirus/antispyware signatures, the ability to run Word or Excel (or a gazillion other programs made for a user 18" from the screen). They don't want to pay $800 or more for all this, in a case that looks silly under the TV
That what they said about the VCR but eventually the price dropped. This post was edited by cto on Monday, January 31, 2005 at 19:51. |
| #7 By 23275 (68.17.42.38) at 1/31/2005 8:50:16 PM |
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I don't know how valid the system noise issue or keeping a system safe is.
Perfectly fanless systems that are both powerful and silent as well as "dark" - little and very discrete lighting are very possible. Similarly, one can easily set both AV and anti-spy/ad-ware to auto-update. We do this for standalone and network systems as most custom builders and certainly network admins do. If delivered as a turn-key solution, one can easily deliver a system that just runs and does not get in the way of users. I think this is what was behind MS's decision to release MCE to the broader OEM channel - as for Tablet and soon Project PC. There has been a lot of work in the partner channel for much more customization and service - which people really want and will pay extra for. Most MCE's are now being hooked to 1280 x 720 capable 50+ inch HDTV systems via sub-D or DVI interface and since more and more much lower cost HDTV's are not only far cheaper, but have 1280 x 720 as standard on all inputs, it is practicle to connect them to PC's - we measured out the average distance and found it to be <13' for people with such HDTV's [from the wireless KB] - at this distance, the MCE, even in websites and email looks amazing. As a content aggregation point, the MCE working with MCX's is a real value and the exact things, without the limitations of a conventional PVR, that people are asking us for, the MCE/MCX combination delivers to all locations in the home. It will evolve, most certainly, but as it stands people are looking very favorably at MCE and much less at Tivo or similar devices [Moxi for example]. |
| #8 By 8556 (12.217.111.74) at 1/31/2005 11:50:11 PM |
| #8: MCE software isn't the problem; it’s the poor case design responsible for the noise. Heat pipes and large fins without fans have worked for decades in high end audio. Media Center PCs will take off when they are use similar whisper quiet designs that rapidly dissipate the internal case heat into the room. |
| #9 By 23275 (68.17.42.38) at 2/2/2005 2:49:18 AM |
| #13, What I am saying is that more and more both MS's posture and the super-sets like, MCE, create some excellent opportunities for competing smaller builders where much higher desgrees of customization and service are possible. It is certainly possible to prepare "hard" systems for customers that one can largely install and simply use. We do this, and while we must and do charge a lot more for it, the market not only accepts that difference, they demand that difference after having long tired from bad experiences, or having to know too much about PC's to use them safely or reliably/consistently. MS's own platform division recocnizes this and has armed the builders with both tools and support to build very nice custom systems that address the needs of consumers. Once can easy build a very solid MCE with even dual processors where small fans are integrated to the PSU and draw air through heatpipes and sinks - the fans are small, and very quiet and make very little noise - certainly less than the fan in a typical DLP HDTV - far less. While off topic, the same can be said for delivering complete systems of all type - corporate, too. As we all know, an OEM box is very rarely delivered as a tunr-key solution ready for first use. As to MCE being a bolt-on - that is simply untrue. It is not as Sony's VAIO and a bevy of media apps - it is a true super-set and MCE is "part" of the OS. For example, 2005 comes without the ability to join it to a domain; however, one reg key and one can join it - I did, but unjoined mine to enable MCX, which requires fast user switching to support the MCX1, 2, etc... acounts extenders need. In the channel, there is a lot of information about what MCE is and how it can be leveraged. It is an excpetional example of very deep EAI where the media components are not merely installed on top of the OS. I do encourage anyone to explore the "fun" profit that can be made by building custom system like this, or as they emerge, new super-sets for project managers, etc... |
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