"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
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
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
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
Just wait awhile, and the cheap crap you paid too much for will come back...but this time it will be even more expensive than before. How's that for consumerism? - Fleagle
For me, that would be anything from Crystal Waters. At one time, Gypsy Woman and 100% Pure Love were high on the list. I just deleted them from iTunes after years of skipping them. - Louis Gray
i used to love Rhianna's Umbrella song - now its turned off as soon as it starts - Stephanie Pickett
any thing by or with Kanye West... Yes he's talented but every time he issues a statement or does an interview I want to slap the taste out of is mouth. Along that line of thinking you can throw "The Puff Daddy" (or what ever the kids are calling him now) to my needs to be slapped up list... - J. Abdul-Qahhar
Almost everything I played when I was on the air. You think YOU'RE tired of the stuff you hear on the radio. After the 50,000th play of "Heartache Tonight," the violent thoughts begin. - Chris Baskind
No such thing! I can go the other direction, but once it's liked, it's liked forever. - Josh Haley
Most songs off the classic greatest hits albums (you know the ones I'm talking about) by the Eagles, Steve Miller, The Doors and Eric Clapton. - Jon Price
I will love Depeche Mode until the day that I die, but if I hear "Enjoy the Scilence" one more time.... - Helen Sventitsky
Finally got rid of the earworm, and thought of one. Right Said Fred's "I'm Too Sexy" - Cyndy
Louis, usually every sony I like :) I have a bad habit of looping... Like, playing the song 100 - 200 times ...again and again ... eventually the magic wears off and I start hating the song :))) - Alemsah
and that american cars are making vehicles much better than they used too - Erin Kotecki Vest
No Erin, that means that once there are more or less no more cars to be sold, and all the storage space for all those spiffy new cars is taken up, the lines will have to shut down. That's what happens when supply massivly outstrips demand. All car makers will have to throttle car production back to better accompdate demand. - Roberto Bonini
did you see the comments Roberto? He talked about the quality ratings and about the production levels. Both. - Erin Kotecki Vest
Where's this coming from? Who's the expert and where are they saying such things? - Alex Scoble CISSP
CNBC probably. The congressional hearing with treasury, federal reserve, and automakers has been on all day. (I imagine it's on CSPAN too) - Chris White
All the info I've seen in the last 5-10 years shows that American car companies have not, in fact, caught up in quality. My co-worker just bought a Saturn VUE a few months ago, for instance, and it was in the shop for like two weeks for warranty repairs. Consumer Reports consistently shows the US car companies lagging well behind in average quality vs Toyota, Honda and Hyundai. Yes...Hyundai! - Alex Scoble CISSP
Alex: I met a former executive for Mercedes Benz in China. He said that they have stats on car quality and the ones built in China were better than the ones built in Germany. Why? More humans (they are cheaper in China, so they do a lot more inspections along the line). - Robert Scoble
