This acquisition has spurred talk in some circles about TiVo’s fate. Why? Well, a number of people think TiVo is a candidate for a buyout. TiVo still has a poison pill to prevent a hostile takeover, but that is expiring in November. And even with the pill in place the BoD can accept a buyout offer at any time without triggering the pill. The pill just helps prevent hostile bids.

There has been speculation that Google could be a suitor. TiVo has a history with hardware, a successful DVR platform, and deals with MSOs. All things Google could use to beef up Google TV – but now all things they have in Motorola, only moreso.

On the other hand, TiVo is involved with patent lawsuits with Verizon (who uses Motorola HW) and AT&T (who also uses Motorola HW), having recently finally settled with Dish Network for $500 million. If Google feels that they may have a liability in these suits, it is possible that they would seek to have them settled as part of the acquisition. Possibly even buying TiVo in order to do so, along with acquiring their patents which could be useful for Google TV and Motorola’s own DVRs. Though I think that’d be a drastic step to take, they could likely settle with TiVo for less than the cost of a buyout. They’d really have to see value in owning the whole package to go that far.

Personally, while my dream marriage would be Google buying TiVo and integrating it into Google TV, I think that is much less likely to happen now that Google has MMI – on top of their recent SageTV acquisition. They’ll have everything they need to roll their own super STB in house once the Motorola deal closes.

On the other hand, if I’m Cisco, Motorola’s largest competitor in the STB market, I might be looking to beef up my product offering. Cisco and TiVo already work together – Cisco is providing the hardware for Virgin Media in the UK and ONO in Spain. So they have a solid track record. Cisco’s STB software has perhaps a worse reputation than Motorola’s, and offering a TiVo-based solution could be a real shot in the arm for them. Especially if Google does push Google TV onto Motorola DVRs.

Cisco also has a retail presence through Linksys, and increasingly under their own brand. They’re familiar with STB hardware, DVRs, retail, and TiVo’s software. They could conceivably add the TiVo Premiere, Premiere XL, Premiere Elite, and Preview to their STB lineup as is for both retail and MSOs. Motorola did something similar when they offered a couple of Moxi-based DVRs and the MoxiMate to MSOs. Those units were unlike any others in their lineup. That would be a rapid way for Cisco to offer a TiVo-based solution, and then they could incorporate the interface into their other STBs going forward.

Of course, that’s all pure speculation. Cisco seems to have little to lose in buying TiVo though. There’s nothing to upset the existing MSO deals in the US, or in most other countries. Most of the foreign TiVo deals are using TiVo developed or Cisco HW already. It could cause some friction with the DirecTV deal as that is using Technicolor HW, same for the Scandinavian deal with Canal Digital, but that could be addressed in contracts. And even if it killed the deals, I think Cisco could live with it. The DirecTV deal is approaching two years past due now and there’s reason to be skeptical about it ever coming to fruition at this point anyway.

I don’t think it would cause an issue for deals like the Best Buy Insignia TVs as there is no direct competition with any Cisco products. They’re complimentary, not competitive.

On the other hand it would give Cisco’s STB product line a boost when trying to land deals with MSOs against Motorola, especially if the latter gets Google TV.

In light of the Google-Motorola deal, as pure speculation, I think I’d consider Cisco the leading candidate to acquire TiVo at this point. I don’t necessarily think it will happen, just that if anyone did I’d put them in the lead.

As for other suitors that have been speculated on.

Apple – No way. They have a strong ‘Not Invented Here’ culture. TiVo is Linux based, Apple uses BSD, it’d be a major rewrite to bring TiVo over to iOS to merge it with Apple TV or the like. And Apple is all about providing content silos via iTunes, I’m not sure a DVR fits their plans.

Microsoft – Doubtful. MS is mildly allergic to Linux. They already have Media Center and successful IPTV STB software – AT&T runs on it. They also have the Xbox 360 for OTT content. Media center extenders are neglected, but still out there too. If MS wanted to get into the DVR business I think they’d roll their own based on their existing STB software before buying TiVo.

Rovi – Maybe. Rovi, formerly known as Macrovision Solutions Corporation, has several product lines, including software for set top boxes. If they had an inclination to get into DVRs and get onto more MSO boxes, they might do so via TiVo.

Dish Network or EchoStar – Doubtful. There was speculation that they may buy TiVo as a way to settle their long-running lawsuit. But now that they’ve settled the case I don’t see Dish or EchoStar having a good reason to buy TiVo. EchoStar already has one of the better DVR platforms out there, along with Slingbox, so they have little to gain in a buyout.

DirecTV – Doubtful. With the new DirecTiVo sliding further and further to the right, DirecTV hardly seems excited about TiVo. They already have a deal in place that covers TiVo’s patents, and they seem to be happy evolving their own DVRs. And they already acquired ReplayTV’s IP a few years back, so they have DVR patents of their own too.

I’ve seen other speculation – that NDS might buy them to kill the competition off or that Comcast (or another MSO) will buy them to monopolize the TiVo interface on their network, etc. But all of those seem even less likely to me.

Right now, I think Cisco would gain the most from acquiring TiVo.

Of course, then again, Cisco has been pulling back from consumer products, such as in shutting down Flip. So I might be completely off base.

But, like I said, this is all just speculation. It is fun to talk about, but I’m not going to put down money on any of these deals happening.

So, what do you think? What does the Google-Motorola deal mean for TiVo, if anything? Or who do you think might be a suitor for TiVo? Or do you think that’s backwards and TiVo is going to use part of their $500 million award from EchoStar/Dish to buy someone else? Or just grow organically?

Leave a comment with your thoughts!

Yes Android, smartphones, and patents are all key factors – but they’re not the only ones.

Google is acquiring all of Motorola Mobility, Inc. (MMI), pending regulatory approval of course. When most people think of Motorola they think of cell phones. And ‘Mobility’ certainly plays into that. But when Motorola split into Motorola Mobility and Motorola Solutions, mobile phones weren’t the only products Mobility got. The other major product line they have are cable products – set-top boxes, DVRs, CableCARDs, Tuning Adapters, and cable modems. Plus head-end systems for the MVPDs. Motorola Mobility is the top cable STB vendor in the US, and a leader in cable/IPTV hybrid systems as the sole hardware provider to both Verizon FiOS and AT&T U-Verse.

While Android is a focus for phones, remember that Google has a little Android-based product called Google TV. And just two months ago they acquired DVR software maker SageTV. SageTV’s products covered DVR and placeshifting, with cross-platform support and excellent UI design. While no plans have been announced, most speculation (my own included) has been that Google is looking to add recording and/or placeshifting to the Google TV platform. Google TV has failed to really catch on to date, with hardware partners Logitech and Sony slashing their prices on Google TV products.

Keep in mind that Android phones struggled for their first two years of life, until the Motorola Droid launched in late 2009 with Android 2.0 and really jump started growth. Later this year Google TV has it’s first big upgrade coming out, based on Android 3.1 Honeycomb, which will add apps, a new UI, and other features. Additional hardware partners are also expected to enter the market with the new version.

Now Google owns the largest set top box maker in the US. Motorola has hardware design and production expertise, not to mention all of their existing MVPD relationships. The one area they really get dinged on is their software. Rarely does anyone have anything good to say about cable STB software. But what if the Google TV OS is ported to Motorola STBs? MVPDs could offer their customers a glossy, polished UI with numerous over-the-top features. Roll in the SageTV capabilities and you have something that can power DVRs and placeshifting hardware.

Motorola doesn’t sell video STBs at retail, but they do sell cable modems. How about an STB which combines Google TV and a cable modem in one box? It might sound odd, but remember EchoStar/Sling Media was pitching a Slingbox/cable modem at MSOs a few years back. Since Google TV is all about OTT content, being the home gateway gives it the most direct access to the pipe, and therefore the best performance. It would also allow MSOs to offer a leased version with dedicated access to MSO-provided content that wouldn’t count against a data cap, etc. Just as Virgin Media does with their TiVo in the UK. Of course, there really isn’t much to stop Motorola from taking one of the cable boxes to retail as a CableCARD device if they wanted to, just as the TiVo Premiere Q/Elite is slated for both MSOs and retail.

With Motorola and SageTV Google has the ability to truly build a ‘God box’ which could serve as cable modem, DVR, placeshifter, and OTT STB. Again, very similar to VM’s TiVo play in the UK. All powered by Android in the guise of Google TV. If Google does go down this road, putting a Google TV-powered DVR on Motorola HW and marketing to MSOs, TiVo would face the biggest competition to date, IMHO.

Note that, aside from Android & smartphones, this is the one area Google CEO Larry Page explicitly called out in his announcement of the deal:

Motorola is also a market leader in the home devices and video solutions business. With the transition to Internet Protocol, we are excited to work together with Motorola and the industry to support our partners and cooperate with them to accelerate innovation in this space.

But that’s not all MMI makes – just look at their consumer products and commercial products. They not only make mobile phones, they also still make home phones. Google has been pushing the growth of Google Voice hard, adding calling features into Google Talk, Gmail, etc. What about a Google Voice phone for the home? They could compete with the likes of Vonage & Magic Jack, offering cheap – or, knowing Google, even free – VOIP phone service run through Google Voice. They could even make fancy units with touchscreens, powered by Android. And video calls through your Google TV, of course.

Let’s step away from hardware just for a moment, and look at software. In particular, remote control software. I don’t mean your TV remote, but software like LogMeIn or Citrix for remotely connecting to a PC or Mac. Or, to be more specific, I mean the Timbuktu Remote Control Software from Netopia. But who is Netopia owned by? Right, MMI – and now, therefore, Google.

Google recently added Citrix support to Chrome OS, but what if they could bake Timbuktu into Chrome OS and Android, and sell, or give away, the server piece that you install on your PC or Mac? Maybe give away single-user versions for end users, and sell multi-user corporate versions.

Suddenly all of those Chome OS netbooks and Android phones & tablets take on a new capability. Being able to connect to a PC, or central corporate server, to access software not (yet) available on Chrome OS or Android. Or simple to do heavy lifting tasks better suited to a beefier platform. Or just for remote control – operate the conference room PC from your tablet. It opens things up. Sure, you can do this today with third party apps, but if they bake the client in and make the server piece free, or cheap, it makes it ubiquitous and I’d bet usage would increase – along with sales of the client devices.

From software over to services, remember Google is starting their broadband experiment with a fiber network in Kansas City. And they’ve talked about, or tried to launch, WiFi and broadband services in other locations. Now they’ll own a top vendor of cable and DSL modems, as well as home networking gear. That certainly seems like a leg up for a company looking to get into broadband.

Getting back to hardware, Motorola also makes the Motonav line of GPS devices. There’s another opportunity for Android I suspect. And even without going that far, they can be closely integrated into Google Maps. Plot your map on Google Maps and send it to your device. Record your trip and upload it to Google Maps, etc. There seems to be a natural link there.

I’m not sure where Motorola might fit in with Google’s announced plans for Android@Home, but I have a feeling there is a connection there. MMI acquired home automation company 4Home last year. MMI makes various consumer devices as I listed above, and they have a retail presence and name recognition. I could see Google capitalizing on that to launch Motorola branded Android@Home devices and bring the 4Home features into an Android@Home suite.

Of course, there is also their accessory business to go with all of their other products. And a few product lines that might not be a direct fit for Google, like Bluetooth headsets, two-way radios, and even baby monitors. Still, they’re further evidence that this is about more than Android smartphones and patents.

Of course, that’s not to downplay the smartphones and patents, I believe they were the largest single factor in this acquisition. But I think Google could’ve licensed, or purchased, the mobile patents for much less than $12.5B. Or they could’ve bid for just the smartphone group and not the whole company. Yes, it is possible that they’ll spin off other pieces once they close the deal, but I think they grabbed the whole enchilada because they can exploit a number of different groups.

If I had to single out just one key issue in this deal it would have to be patents. MMI holds approximately 17,000 patents in the mobile space alone, with another 7,500 pending. Remember last month when Apple, Microsoft, Research in Motion, Sony, Ericsson and EMC teamed up to buy 6,000 Nortel patents for $4.5B? Google just grabbed four times as many patents & patents pending for less than three times the price – and acquired a few thriving business lines in the process as a bonus. I don’t expect Google to go off suing other vendors as an offensive measure, but you can be damn sure they’ll be using their patents defensively if anyone comes after Android. And now they have a pretty big stick.

As far as Android smartphones go, it isn’t as clear cut as it may seem. Google cannot afford to show favoritism to Motorola and upset their other Android partners. As I covered last month, in the US HTC sells more Android phones than Motorola, with Samsung gaining from third place. And worldwide Samsung is the leader in Android phones. Asus has the top selling Android tablet with the Eee Pad Transformer, while Motorola’s Xoom has seen tepid sales at best, overshadowed by the likes of the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1.

The point is, Google can ill afford to upset their other partners and have them leave the Android fold. HTC & Samsung both produce Windows Phones as well, and Samsung has their own, in-house OS: Bada. Samsung has done a lot to bring custom apps to their Android devices to enhance them, but they could turn those resources toward Bada if they felt they weren’t getting a fair deal with Android. While Windows Phone is an option, it may not be more appealing than Android now that Microsoft has all but acquired Nokia and has already committed to giving them more freedom with Windows Phone than the vendors using it today. They’re already playing favorites, while Google is promising not to:

This acquisition will not change our commitment to run Android as an open platform. Motorola will remain a licensee of Android and Android will remain open. We will run Motorola as a separate business. Many hardware partners have contributed to Android’s success and we look forward to continuing to work with all of them to deliver outstanding user experiences.

But there are other options. HP has floated the idea of licensing WebOS to other vendors. Or someone could pick up an existing project like MeeGo and move it forward. So Google has to tread carefully. They can’t turn Motorola into their private skunk works, giving them access to insider knowledge not given to other partners. Nor could they prioritize changes to Android that benefit Motorola unfairly compared to changes requested by other vendors. And, worst of all, they don’t want to risk a massive schism with someone like Samsung taking Android and forking it completely away from the Google trunk.

Of all the divisions Google just acquired, I think they can least integrate smartphones. It is the one piece they really need to keep at arms length to avoid upsetting other partners. They may need to show some caution with Google TV, as they have partners for retail devices, but they could easily do that by keeping any Motorola Google TV products out of retail and marketing them solely to MVPDs. That would leave retail to their other partners.

Google’s position isn’t an easy one. Frankly, the historic record isn’t a good one. They’re facing many of the same issues as Palm did back in the day, or Nokia with Symbian. Trying to produce hardware using an operating system that you are also licensing to other vendors whom your hardware competes with. Palm had a period of success with licensees like Sony, Handspring, Handera, Symbol, Lenovo, Samsung, Qualcomm/Kyocera, Tapwave, etc. But over time, as Palm expanded their product lines, friction developed with their licensees.

Once Palm acquired Handspring, bringing the Treo line in house, that really drove away their remaining licensees. Many of whom turned to Windows Mobile as the only real alternative at the time. Palm tried the disastrous split into PalmOne and Palm Source, but that really didn’t do much to satisfy their partners.

Nokia had a similar history with Symbian, which was technically not entirely owned by them but de facto they really controlled it. Sony Ericsson and Motorola were the two big licensees, but they also had Samsung, Lenovo, Fujitsu, etc. Nokia finally acquired full ownership of Symbian so they could spin it out as its own open source group, in an attempt to make it more appealing to other partners. But it was too little, too late – and rather than attract more vendors, they lost those they already had. (Mainly to Android.) Nokia eventually gave up and pulled Symbian back in house – before finally giving it up entirely for Windows Phone.

Google needs to avoid a similar fate with their partners. Hopefully they can find the right balance to pull it off.

Verizon had previously started allowing self-installs. With the August first deadline looming, will the other major players roll out self-install support on time? Will the rest of the MSOs wait until the last minute? Have you spotted any of them rolling out CableCARD self install support already? If so, let me know!

We first heard about an OCAP SDK from Motorola last June, but haven’t heard much since then. In the meantime there have been a number of changes, not the least of which has been the rebranding of OCAP as tru2way, as well as a number of CE vendors signing the tru2way MOU with CableLabs. Tru2way really has a lot of traction now and we should see a number of tru2way products on the market by mid-2009.

Well, according to Media Experiences 2 Go Motorola has finally released the SDK to tru2way developers. ME2G has a Q&A with Motorola’s Frank Goddard, and there is a product fact sheet PDF available as well. Tools like this will be a major factor in building a successful tru2way ecosystem.

As recently revealed, the new 9.4 TiVo update includes Tuning Adapter support, so TiVo users will be ready for the TAs as soon as the cable MSOs make them available. As Bright House, Cox, Time Warner, and others all implementing SDV, the TAs will be increasingly important. Pricing for customers is not yet known, except for Cox which announced plans to provide the TAs to their customers free of charge.

As we’ve known for a while, the Motorola TA looks just like their DCT700 cable box. It is a very simple device with only five connections – coax in, coax out, USB, a diagnostics port, and power. In the demo it is connected in series with the TiVo HD cable into the MTR700, then out of the TA into the TiVo, and the USB connection to the TiVo. Ben reports that it works perfectly, tuning SDV channels transparently with no apparent delay compared to linear channels. He also says it should be available to cable MSOs in July, as I previously predicted, but no firm details on consumer availability or pricing yet.

All in all it sounds like good news. Maybe Ben can see if Cisco has their STA1520 on display as well.

The HDTiVo Blog picked it up from there (which is where I found the link to the HD GURU post). Gizmodo also picked up the story, though I have a nit to pick:“Our friend Gary Merson, the HD Guru, has uncovered an issue that may soon piss you off.” Uncovered? Gizmodo hasn’t been paying attention, blogs such as this one, Zatz Not Funny, and others have mentioned the SDV issue and Tuning Resolver repeatedly for quite a while now. Just one example, the issue with Bright House cable pulling channels, and then returning them. This is hardly a surprise issue if you’ve been paying attention. And, unfortunately, Gizmodo repeated the errors from the original post.

Anyway, CableLabs responded to Gizmodo’s original post, and Gizmodo shared the information in a follow-up post. I’m glad a statement came out of it to help clarify things a bit, and correct the misconceptions.

Over at Zatz Not Funny, Dave Zatz chimed in on the SDV Tuning resolver issue as well. Including a link to the most solid, and best, news to come out of the whole thing, at Media Experiences 2 Go. Mari Silbey of Motorola reports that Motorola’s Tuning Resolver implementation, now officially the MTR700, has sailed through CableLabs interoperability testing ‘with flying colors’. The next step is CableLabs certification testing with product submission in April in preparation for the certification board meeting in June. So, presuming the device gets certified, it will be ready at the end of June. Which means it would be very unlikely to make the 2Q2008 release schedule, but will probably be available in early 3Q08. Motorola will be exhibiting the MTR700 at The Cable Show in New Orleans in May. While it may not seem that way to those awaiting a solution, the development of the Tuning Resolver has been extremely fast for a new piece of hardware. The cable industry is really fast-tracking development to get the Tuning Resolver out there as fast as possible. Now it is up to the consumer electronics industry to provide compatible firmware for CableCARD devices with USB ports. (TiVo is, of course, already on board.)

Back in November when the Motorola Tuning Resolver was first revealed, it was noted that it strongly resembled their DCT700 cable box. The MTR700 model number seems to indicate the commonality is more than cosmetic.

Still no word on consumer pricing or general availability. I live in Worcester, MA which is Charter Scientific Atlanta territory, so I can’t try this myself. I work over in Marlborough, MA. So if anyone in the area gets the TiVo software and is willing to have a stranger come over and poke at their cable box and maybe take some photos, let me know.

It looks pretty good, Dave has a ton of screen-shots in his post and Verizon has done a decent job on the UI. Verizon is using Motorola DVRs, which seem to be a popular platform for 3rd party DVR software – with TiVo and Moxi both developing OCAP software for the platform, and, of course, today’s i-Guide in common use.

Verizon’s FiOS TV provides multi-room viewing over coax using the MoCA standard. This is real-time streaming to client boxes from the master unit, unlike TiVo’s MRV over the network which does a copy. It is similar to Digeo’s planned Firewire-over-coax streaming on the forthcoming Moxi units. I like the fact that it is streaming so you have dynamic access to the central content, and I wish TiVo had that, but I’d like to see standard networks, especially WiFi supported. Streaming today is only for SD content, but Verizon plans to add HD streaming in 2008.

I love TiVo, but I do think it is time for an overhaul of the UI. It hasn’t really changed since the early days, and it is looking a little dated. I liked the simple refresh of the OCAP software I saw at CES – it still felt like TiVo, but it seemed ‘cleaner’ somehow.

EDIT: Update, Mari has posted a number of photos.

BrothersOnTech.com by way of EngadgetHD.

Kircos added that Intel’s agreement with CableLabs on OpenCable concerns only the chip family for CE devices it plans to introduce in 2008, “not a PC play per se, nor for our Core or Pentium processors at this point.”

I actually think this is more an issue of Intel being a large corporation with their fingers in several pies than a real reversal. Intel would still like to see a two-way standard that allows CE devices to access two-way cable services (SDV, VOD, etc) without the hefty overhead of supporting OCAP. However, at the same time, there is a market for chips that are going into the new generation of cable set top box and other devices which *will* support OCAP, and Intel wasn’t willing to cede the market to the competition over OCAP.

In another development, Microsoft and CableLabs have extended their partnership with a formal collaborative effort to develop ways for two-way cable services to function on PCs. It isn’t clear if this means embedding OCAP in Windows or developing an alternative system. I’d be a bit shocked if it is the former. OCAP is Java-based – and MS has a deep hatred for Java. The primary reason MS backs HD DVD over Blu-ray is that HD DVD uses iHD (developed my Microsoft and Toshiba) for interactive features while Blu-ray uses BD-Java – which is itself derived from the same MHP/GEM standards that OCAP was derived from, and hence related in a way. I just don’t see Microsoft grinning and paying for a Java license to embed Java in every copy of Windows MCE, not after the past acrimony over their JVM, etc. But I suppose stranger things have happened.

OCAP is running far behind schedule. It was originally anticipated to be widely deployed by the end of 2006, now the cable industry is claiming it will be widely deployed by the end of 2008. Delays in getting the OCAP infrastructure in place had cascaded to a number of delays, including delays in getting TiVo’s new OCAP-based software out for Comcast and Cox.

The majority of the CE industry has shunned OpenCable mainly due to the OCAP requirement. Adding support for OCAP increases the costs and complexity of their products and, at the same time, impacts their software design as features utilizing OCAP will run cable software and not the CE vendor’s own UI. This doesn’t sit well with the industry.

There have been some notable exceptions. Panasonic, LG, and Samsung have all licensed OCAP and are producing OCAP-compliant devices. It isn’t too surprising, as these companies product cable products for other countries. Until now, the US market was dominated by Motorola and Scientific Atlanta, and it was nearly impossible for a 3rd party to break in. Cable companies used Motorola head-end systems with Motorola STBs, or SA with SA. Now with CableCARD and OCAP, it is easier for 3rd parties to enter the market. Panasonic and Samsung are already making cable boxes for US Cable MSOs, utilizing CableCARD. Samsung is testing OCAP televisions with Time Warner.

If you’re making a cable STB, then OCAP isn’t a big issue. That’s the way the industry is going and Motorola and SA are supporting OCAP on their products, so competitors will do the same. OCAP is based on the MHP/GEM standards used in STBs around the world, so supporting OCAP isn’t a big leap for vendors already making STBs in other countries.

If you’re making high-end TVs it isn’t so bad either. The cost can be absorbed, and since the TV didn’t really have much in the way of interactivity and advanced features, there isn’t a conflict between OCAP and the CE vendors own software and UI. So LG and Samsung testing the waters for OCAP TVs isn’t a big surprise.

However, if you produce more advanced products, like TiVo or Digeo, then yielding control to OCAP is a big deal. And cost is an issue for most CE products, with the cost of supporting OCAP being non-negligible – both in the added hardware and in the required licenses. Which is why CE vendors really want a simple, basic way to handle two-way features without all of the baggage of OCAP. OCAP is pretty hefty, and a lot more than is needed to handle simple tasks like SDV or ordering VOD.

There could possibly be some progress on this front this week, as the FCC is holding an open meeting in Portland, ME to discuss the issue, amongst other agenda items.

For the non-geeks, OCAP is the OpenCable Applications Platform, a new Java-based platform that the cable industry is migrating toward. TiVo’s software for Comcast and Cox is currently written for an ‘OCAP precursor’ and it will be fully OCAP as the platform matures. And an ‘SDK’ is a Solutions Developers Kit – a set of tools used by developers to write applications for a given platform. So what this means is that Motorola is releasing a tool kit for developers to help them write applications that will run on the new OCAP compatible cable boxes and other OCAP devices. It should be available in Q3.

While this will make it easier for small development houses to create OCAP applications, the platforms are still a closed system. It would be up to the cable MSO to allow a given application to run on their boxes. It is possible that some MSOs may open the doors wide for 3rd party ‘widgets’ and such, but it remains to be seen how easy it will be for end users to access 3rd party apps on their cable box. It seems likely to be similar to cell phones, where most phones are locked down and only approved apps from the carrier can be accessed. But there is also the opportunity, with CableCARD, for 3rd party STB vendors to sell OCAP compatible STBs which allow users to load additional OCAP software – much like some high-end phones, and most smartphones, allow users to load any 3rd party software they wish.

In other news, I registered for CES 2008 and made my hotel reservations last night. I know it isn’t until January, but trust me, all the cheap and/or convenient rooms fill up fast. From experience I insist on staying in a hotel on a monorail stop – no better way to get up and down the strip. I’ll be at the Sahara again this time. I’d love a swanky suite and all, but I pay for this trip out of pocket. I’m not exactly a media powerhouse.