CNet News.com is reporting that Apple may try to take over TiVo. The article goes on to say that TiVo has a market capitalization of only $300million, meaning that I could practically take them over (I’m only about $299,995,000 short right now). Other suitors apparently include Time Warner.
I have to say that nothing would be better than TiVo getting bought out at this point in thier growth. They’ve managed to take the little company as far as possible on their own, and now they need the big time marketing and technology connections of one of the big boys. TiVo has managed to get the market share it currently has largely through word of mouth. I love my TiVo, it’s an awesome box, although their lack of suppport for Canada is vexing, there are ways around that. I moved to Windows Media Center edition recently not because of anything TiVo did itself, but MCE is easier for a Canucklehead to hook up.
Of course a TiVo costs about $150, while the license for MCE alone is about that, but TiVo has the whole “pay as you go” thing going for it, which racks up the total cost of ownership.
I’ve been really impressed with what you can do with Media Center, MP3’s on my stereo, weather plug-ins on my TV, recorded TV, and a fairly decent interface (although admittedly not as good as TiVo’s), all add up to a really good product. Of course it’s a Windows box, so it crashes occasionally…but what are you going to do?