TiVo Ditching their CEO
TiVo Announced today that CEO Mike Ramsay is out and Thomas Hawk explains why it is long overdue. I've watched TiVo's few triumphs and many foibles over the years here and they're definitely in a rocky spot right now. They've made a lot of mistakes, but at this point the market is even tougher and they're going to need to do something amazing to pull themselves up. Calling in a new captain at this point could be a last ditch effort to turn the ship around. TV Harmony sums up their challenges against Microsoft and suggests someone like Mark Cuban take the helm. I certainly hope they go for a technologist for the new CEO, and they take some risks to regain their market.
Probably too late for Tivo to power all the set top boxes. I'm not sure why this was never its strategy outside of the DirectTv deal. If you're looking for Microsoft's offering, it's not Media Center, it's Microsoft TV: http://www.microsoft.com/tv
Posted by: pb | January 12, 2005 at 05:08 PM
Tivo is/was very cool but we were going to get there eventually and it's not an extremely challenging product to make. So product excellence should have taken a back seat to distribution.
Posted by: pb | January 12, 2005 at 05:10 PM
I second the Cuban nomination.
Posted by: Chris | January 12, 2005 at 07:01 PM
Found the following note on Apple rather interesting in the context of TiVo:
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Just last year, we heard from PC analysts at bulge bracket firms suggesting that Apple:
1) Sell itself to Sony
2) Start using Intel chips; and
3) Put out Windows-compatible machines.
Fortunately, the company laughed off the suggestions.
Even with the introduction of a low-cost Apple PC, I do not expect most of the analytical community to suddenly find religion. This is part of a long-term misunderstanding of Apple by the Street. Many people don't get Apple; they sure haven't been able to figure out Steve Jobs. And since all but one of them work primarily on a Windows machine, they never really understood what all the fuss was about.
Until the iPod came along, that is. Apple created a category killer by engineering a marvelous piece of user-friendly technology made from essentially off-the-shelf components. The secret sauce was their terrific user interface -- software.
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Interesting because this is exactly TiVo's strategy - except it doesnt appear to be working quite as well. At the moment...
Posted by: New York | January 13, 2005 at 12:43 PM
Matt, I am responding to an older post you had about posting a ggogle search onto your typepad website. For the life of me I can't get this thing to work. It will not return results. Would you be so kind to send me the exact code with my url in it? I woulod be so grateful! Here is is: http://getnewhope.blogs.com/personal_trainer/
Thanks! jon
carpediem365@msn.com
Posted by: jon | January 16, 2005 at 08:15 PM
Nice
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