While Digeo still claims their new Moxi boxes will hit the market later this year, they’re still not telling us much about them. While they’ve been showing them at various shows, they really haven’t said anything new since CES in January. I’d expect them to want to have the boxes out in time for the holiday shopping season if they still plan to have them out this year - and that really means this month or next. But if they’re close to launch, you’d think they’d be doing more to promote them and talk about details. But EngadgetHD caught the Digeo both at CEDIA, and it doesn’t look like Digeo has anything new to say yet. In fact, those boxes look like the same empty mock-ups I saw at CES. Come on Digeo, give us something new and specific, I’m starting to wonder if they’re really shipping this year.
Not that there is no news out of Digeo - just that it isn’t very meaningful. First, Digeo and Monster announced that they’re going to “explore joint product development opportunities”.
Digeo®, Inc., makers of the Emmy®-award winning Moxi® digital media recorder (DMR), and Monster, the world’s leading manufacturer of high-end cables, accessories and power conditioning products, today announced their efforts to explore joint product development opportunities to take advantage of the growing proliferation of IP-connected entertainment options and advance the simplicity and quality of premium entertainment experiences in the home.
Yes, that’s as vague and meaningless as it sounds. They’re talking to each other - like any other million pair of companies you could name. From the press release: “The companies are not announcing any specific collaborative products at this time.” So they issued a press release to announce that the two companies are discussing the possibility of working together. Wow. That’s meta-vaporware. I know I can be a cynic, but I really don’t take it as a good sign when a company feels the need to issue press releases about this kind of garbage.
On top of that, if they do work together, Monster is involved, which means it’ll be overpriced no matter what it may be. (As should be obvious, I’m not a fan of Monster Cable, specifically their pricing.)
Moving on to something with a little more meat, Digeo also announced a deal with 4HomeMedia to bring home control software to the Moxi platform. Digeo is licensing 4HomeMedia’s ControlPoint software and integrating it into the Moxi Menu interface so that you can control devices in your home from your sofa via the Moxi remote. Of course, the prerequisite is that you have a home automation system in place. As part of this effort, Digeo also joined the Z-Wave Alliance, a home control industry group.
As a geek, this is cool. It is geeky and would be a neat toy. But, putting aside the “Ooh, shiny” geek reaction for a moment, I don’t think this is a big deal. How many people have a home automation system? Right - even most geeks don’t have one. This is only going to be useful for people with not only a home automation system, but a compatible home automation system. And then only if they want a DVR, decide to go with Moxi, and want to control their home automation system from their sofa in the first place - probably dimming the lights and such for the most part. I just don’t see this boosting Moxi sales in any appreciable way - whenever they ship in the first place.
It just strikes me as weird that here we are in September, Digeo is exhibiting at CEDIA, they’ve claimed the boxes are shipping this year - but instead of announcing details on the boxes (little things like real specs, pricing, distribution plans, etc) we’re getting fluff releases like these. To paraphrase an ad from my youth - Digeo, where’s the beef?
The two press releases picked up via ZatzNotFunny.
