3 hours ago
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Susan Beebe, Robert Scoble, Hutch Carpenter and 6 other people liked this
"TiVo becomes the latest Silicon Valley company to resort to laying employees off as it “manages through the challenges presented by a difficult economic climate,” as well as what it, perhaps euphemistically refers to as “a rapidly evolving retail consumer market.”
Perhaps “devolving” would be the more appropriate verb choice. Or does TiVo know something about other changes in consumer habits, in addition to the evidently growing consumer fad of, well, consuming less." - Chris White
I love snark. - Chris White
Do layoffs mean you maybe hired more full-timers than you should have? Perhaps the time is right for us all to become consultants. - Daniel J. Pritchett
Don't they need someone to deliver pizzas? - Mona N.
Daniel: TiVo's headcount has remained pretty steady over time. There are a lot of companies more deserving of the 'you hired too quickly and now you pay the price' snark than TiVo is. This is a sad day for TiVo and many of my friends who work there. - Kevin Fox
I ♡ TiVo. We have two, including a Series 1 and an HD. They pioneered this market and should have gotten much bigger than they have. Great product. - Louis Gray
Louis, I feel the same way. There are just a handful of products / services that are in the same class as TiVo in my book. - Mike Doeff
The problem TiVo ran into (and WebTV also) was that the cable/satellite companies control everything. Once they partnered with companies with better UIs, they created internal projects to build their own DVRs, and then ended the partnerships. Getting a box from your provider became the default compared to getting a 3rd party product. It's an unfortunate reality of business that there are strategic issues beyond user experience that determine success. It's the primary reason we haven't seen an Apple DVR. - Chris White
But we have seen an Apple phone, and arguably the situation is pretty similar there. - ⓞnor
@nor, Apple negotiated a great deal with AT&T, as far as wireless contracts go, but they still had to sign a 5-year exclusive. The cable market in particular is different because it's regional, which just becomes a huge convoluted mess. Better luck will probably come from using broadband than trying to navigate the cable twisty passages. - Chris White
@nor: By that analogy, is Android the generic mobile provider's alternative? - Kevin Fox
Tivo made it impossible for me to cancel my account with them a few years back (no option on their website, even though I had added by cc# there, and an intolerably long wait on the phone). My credit card was about to expire, so I figured it wasn't a problem (just a few extra months of billing), but then they continued to charge me even after the card expired (the new card had the same number with a different expiration date). Anyway, I don't feel too sorry for them, and I don't plan to buy from them ever again. - Paul Buchheit
Paul, the credit card companies are funny about these recurring charges. Even after I've changed numbers on the same account for fraud reasons, I've continued to get recurring charges from some companies. Luckily I've never had a problem with TiVo because I bought out the contract and then gave it away to someone. - Chris White
:( - Josh Haley
Just one more useless commodity that needed to bite the dust as soon as home DVR'ing with traditional services was implemented. - tony
I'm kind of surprised at the antipathy I'm seeing here for TiVo. I can understand if their CS department somehow slighted you, but I have not had that experience and I have owned 4 separate TiVo's over the years, some with lifetime subscriptions. Bottom line, the TiVo has the easiest, most powerful platform for scheduling recordings and watching TV that I have ever used. At the very least, I would hope that Scientific Atlanta, etc., would take notes but almost everything else out there is crap (cont'd) - Phil Glockner
Ah, the company that singlehandedly screwed the ad business :) - Patricia
comparatively. TiVo has fought and scraped for so long on a completely slanted playing field, and they are a true underdog. I'm glad that projects like MythTV are starting to mature, and perhaps that is the future of television, but for now I will stick to my Series3. - Phil Glockner
I wasn't snarking, just curious about business models. - Daniel J. Pritchett
via fftogo
Phil, my comments weren't antipathy. I thought TiVo did a great job on user experience. What I was saying was they didn't have a strategic business advantage, and that is often what is necessary for long term success. - Chris White
Thanks Daniel and Chris. Chris, I see what you are saying. If you look at TiVo's history of partnering with companies (like DirectTV) and then getting screwed over by their partners, they aren't trying to be elitist in the market. They are willing to make a deal. But the rest of the industry would prefer to stick with the lowest common denominator, or (like Dish) just rip off their technology without apology. - Phil Glockner
I never had the need to experience TiVo since Comcast and Timewarner both more or less had DVRs provided for me. Maybe I missed out on something great, but either way, I hate to hear the layoffs keep coming. - Mike
I've used Comcast and Timewarner DVRs, and I must say that TiVo is superior. Of course I still wouldn't bother to get a TiVo because I have a good-enough DVR in my cable box. - Gabe
