Tivo: Add an App Store NOW
Apr 23, 2009
Sorry for the hiatus, kids. It’s been a wild ride the past year or so as I’ve changed jobs, gotten married, and bought an iPhone, but I’ll get back to those topics later.
Today I want to reach out to Tivo, the makers of one of my favorite devices, and ask them to please, please open an app store. I don’t ask this only for myself, but also for the sake of the Tivo Company, as I believe an app store could save it from the subscriber stagnation and lackluster financial performance that have plagued it lately. Here are just a few of the wins they could realize:
- No other major DVR offers an app store, so it’s a perfect time to break new ground and put even more ground between themselves and other hardware-based DVRs. We’ve seen what app stores have done for other platforms like Facebook and iPhone.
- Newer software-based DVRs and media centers are catching up to your functionality, so let third-party developers help you stay ahead of the game. If you give them a compelling revenue model, they will innovate and keep your device on the cutting edge, so you don’t have to.
- As a DVR that is offered on a standard hardware platform, it should be relatively easy to give developers kits that will let them leverage the hardware. The PC software-based media centers can’t compete on this because they need to accomodate a plethora of hardware types that users could have.
- In the Tivo, owners already have a functioning computer sitting right there plugged into our TVs, so let third-party developers help us take advantage of its full pontential.
If Tivo enabled such an app store, it wouldn’t be long before they would absolutely own the living room. Here are some things I’d like to see my Tivo do…can you think of more?
- Stream my live and recorded shows so I can see them on other PCs or devices that aren’t connected to a Tivo (who needs a Slingobox?)
- Web browsing
- Instant messaging
- “Widgets” similar to the Yahoo/Samsung offering that could offer sports scores, stock quotes, etc.
- More robust ways to show my media hosted on other devices on my Tivo (current Tivo methods are kludgy)
- And of course…games
Now that’s something I’d pay for, and considering Tivo already bills me monthly, it’d be easy to add a few charges onto the bill for all those extra features I ordered. So how about it, Tivo?
Jon
April 23rd, 2009 at 12:31 pm #
Developers on standard PC hardware don’t have to consider all the different permutations of hardware, the OS does that for us. Check out XBMC. It’s amazing. I don’t know what’s in there for an actual video recorder, but as for playback and library functionality it’s amazing. Yes, it requires you to add the video content yourself, but that hasn’t been an issue so far.
Case
April 23rd, 2009 at 12:37 pm #
Netflix better do something. Their monthly subscription is not worth it any more. I get a dual tuner HD DVR from my cable company for $10 per month. Nothing to worry about if it breaks, no extra costs for dual CableCards like with Tivo HD… And best of all no huge up front costs.
Honestly though with the rise of On Demand from cable companies and platforms like Amazon and Netflix being built directly into consumer devices it would not surprise me if local DVRs were a thing of the past in ten years. Netflix streaming works very well and is bundled in DVD players and nevwer TVs as well.
Jeremy
joel
April 23rd, 2009 at 1:24 pm #
RE: Jon: yes, PCs do have methods that to some extent abstract the hardware, but how often do we still run into hardware compatilibity issues? Most video capture cards, for instance, come with their own software that can take advantage of the features of those particular cards - it’d be pretty hard to write a really good DVR system that would accomodate all of the different capture cards with their various capabilities, and to keep it up to date. It’s just much easier to deal with when you have a consistent hardware platform like Tivo does.
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April 23rd, 2009 at 3:25 pm #
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