TiVo, in a bid to increase its market share and fight off new rivals in the video gear business, is going to launch an economy version of its HD-DVR, according to company executives. Despite being an early starter in the digital video recording business, it has faced challenges that are increasing by the day.
TiVo needs this cheaper box to increase its market penetration. While it’s still the premiere DVR brand in terms of features, the company’s technology is also going facing challenges from P2P solutions like BitTorrent, IPTV set-tops and web-enabled devices like the Apple TV.
And in a conference call discussing its quarterly earnings, TiVeo CEO Tom Rogers suggested that a “Series 3 Lite” or less expensive HD DVR offering in the $400 range is in the works. Ars Technica speculates on some features that might be left out of the cheaper box.
TiVo announced an $835,000 first quarter profit, beating analyst expectations by a whisker. Though they projected a larger second quarter loss than expected, largely due to ad campaign spending and lower prices in an effort to broaden the appeal of their product with the mass market, as cable and satellite company branded DVRs have proved more popular.
For instance, TiVo is currently running a $200 rebate offer on its top-of-the-line Series 3 HD DVRs over at Amazon.
TiVo was an early player in changing how the world watched television. TiVo has started to integrate some of the online video services and offer popular shows like Rocketboom and Diggnation on TiVo via direct downloads. It had worked with C/Net on an online tech channel. We believe that TiVo could be more aggressive in bridging the gap between web video and the living room, otherwise it could slowly start losing traction to new devices like Apple TV. Apple recently introduced a new YouTube channel on AppleTV.
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