Logitech Revue Google TV Box Pricing Drops to $99.99

Posted on Monday, August 1, 2011 by MegaZone

Logitech Revue Initially launched last October at a $299.99 price point, later reduced to $249.99, and then further reduced to $199.99 this May, the Logitech Revue Google TV box hasn’t been what one could call a sales success. Logitech has suffered from extensive returns from their distributors and resellers, taking a big hit to the bottom line in the process. To help improve the sales prospects of the unit last week Logitech announced that they’d be dropping the price again, to $99.99. And today the new price went into effect.

You can now buy the Logitech Revue for $99.99 at Amazon, Best Buy, or direct from Logitech. At the original $299.99 price I thought it was way too expensive to recommend, or bother getting one myself. But at the new $99.99 price I think it is a viable contender, and I just ordered one to play with.

Google TV is certainly rough around the edges today, but it has a lot of potential. It is based on the Android operating system, but the first version, what is available today, is pretty limited. You have some of the standards we’ve come to expect – like Netflix, Pandora, and Amazon – but compared to a unit like Roku it is a pretty limited selection. Fortunately, that’s expected to change in a big way later this summer. Google TV is getting an update to a new version based on Android 3.1 Honeycomb, the latest & greatest version of Android, as used on tablets. Along with this update the Android App Market will be hitting Google TV, and you’ll be able to download apps just as you can on your Android smartphone. And 3rd party developers will be able to develop apps to do anything, just like the phones. And all existing Google TV devices, including the newly affordable Revue, will get this update. So it isn’t just what it can do now, it is what it will do in a few months that makes it a decent value at the new price.

I’d love to see Google TV integrated tightly with TiVo, as it is with Dish Network DVRs today. The potential is certainly there, with TiVo’s network remote control functionality on the Series3 and later boxes. I’m not a developer, so I don’t know if this is something the Google TV API would allow 3rd party developers to do, but I suspect not since it is more a core feature of the platform.

I think Google really stumbled out of the gate with Google TV, but they’re not stupid and they learn from their mistakes. Everything
they’ve shown relating to Google TV 2.0 looks pretty impressive. They’ve learned several lessons from the tepid response and harsh reviews of the first version, unfortunately Logitech took a real financial hit to help drive those lessons home. I think Googleis learning that the physical world is a bit different than operating online, where you can launch an incomplete product and get away with it by calling it a ‘beta’ and making it free. People aren’t as happy with half-baked products when they have to pay real money for them, especially several times what competing products cost (such as Roku). You really need to get it right the first time, then continue to improve it. Not ship something functional but overly limited, then make it awesome in a later update. First impressions are important. Google is big enough to recover from a fumble, but it doesn’t serve them to get their partners, like Logitech, beat up in the market due to product shortcomings.

One odd quirk caused by the repricing, the optional Mini Controller for the Revue at $129.99 now costs more than the Revue with it’s included full size keyboard. But then, it is optional and the keyboard that comes with the Revue is all you really need. Not to mention the remote control apps available for Android or iOS devices.

It will also be interesting to see what happens with pricing on the Boxee Box by D-Link. The MSRP is currently $229.99, and with the reduction on the Revue and the existing low pricing on Roku boxes, the main competition, it stands out as a high priced box. The Popbox is $129.99, which is a bit high but still close. It really looks like $99.99 is the new price to match, or beat, in the media STB market, thanks mainly to Roku.

As a big fan of Android on my phone, and Google products in general, I’m looking forward to having my own Revue so I can play with Google TV. For $300 I was curious but reserved, for $100 I’ll bite.

Initial announcement spotted last week in Engadget.

Posted in Amazon, Google, Google TV, HDTV | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 7 Comments

Is TiVo Streaming Officially Arriving in October?

Posted on Monday, August 1, 2011 by MegaZone

TiVo Logo We know TiVo is working on streaming content from the Premiere. It was even accidentally activated by a software update, until a later update disabled it again. And we know that TiVo is developing the TiVo Premiere Q/Elite and TiVo Preview for MSOs. The latter is a non-DVR STB where one of the primary functions is to stream content from a DVR unit. And they’re trying to get a waiver from the FCC to sell the units at retail. So we know they’re working on it, but we don’t know when it might be released.

Or do we? As I mentioned in my last post, during the Q&A at the end of their recent quarterly call, Virgin Media said“Just think about October, the second drop. The access your hard drive from another device.” That certainly sounds like they’ll be enabling streaming in October. And we know that Virgin Media intends to deploy the TiVo software on non-DVR STBs as well, as it was stated in the initial partnership announcement. While the UK HW is different, it still would be quite similar to a Premiere/Premiere Elite streaming to a Preview in the US. And the software used in the UK is related to the software used in the US, so perhaps not so very different after all.

If UK TiVo users will be getting streaming in October, perhaps the same time frame will hold true for the US? It makes some sense to roll out such a feature in time for the holiday shopping season, so I think it has some merit.

Posted in DVR, TiVo | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Virgin Media Announces Second Quarter Results, Says Nice Things About TiVo

Posted on Monday, August 1, 2011 by MegaZone

Virgin Media TiVo Last week Virgin Media announced their second quarter results, as covered in their press release. While the overall results were positive, I’m particularly interested in what they had to say about their newly launched TiVo service. They have a little to say in the official press release:

During the quarter, we have seen an encouraging early take-up of Virgin Media TiVo, our new game-changing entertainment platform, and we have recently unveiled a high impact advertising campaign which will see this compelling service marketed to new customers for the first time.

And:

We have now started to sell and market our new TiVo service to new customers. This is the UK’s first next generation TV service, seamlessly bringing together the best of TV, on demand and the web through an intuitive graphical interface. This enables us to launch exciting new entertainment experiences, such as we developed with Warner Bros Pictures to complement the launch of ‘Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2’. We introduced a dedicated TV app that brought together live film premiere coverage with extra online content. We have also introduced a mobile app allowing customers to set their TiVo service to record shows remotely. The strong early demand for this service has matched our high expectations and, as of 26th July, we had approximately 50,000 installed TiVo customers.

But the real interesting comments are from the call itself, fortunately captured via transcript:

Neil Berkett – CEO: Thanks very much everybody. I think TiVo will do to our video business what DOCSIS 3.0 to our broadband business. I think it will significantly change our brand, our perception and our ongoing delivery, but more about that later.

And so, later:

Testimony, 75,000 TiVo sales, 50,000 in store (the gap) we’ve only being selling for two weeks. Testimony, 50% of our broadband ads at 30 meg and above. Testimony, two price increases in the last six months and you can see the trend.

This is about a business that is targeted to consumers and business customers that need data. They need data and may want data, but the most important thing is they need data. So our drivers are broadly going well. We continue to move with price and there will be periods when that is not available to us. We just launched TiVo at a GBP3 delta in terms of its price over of V+ Box.

But the real interesting part is the following:

On to application. So, you saw we have journey, it’s reasonably predictable around connectivity. You upgrade speeds; you run tiers within your huge pipe; you manage across that, and periodically you upgrade everybody. Tried, proven, you’ll see us do it again and again. The top tier speed at the moment a 100 meg starts out very quietly as did 50, and then accelerates. You tested the market on price, it accelerates again.

Application is different. Application starts to create the glue beyond the raw horsepower of connectivity. Applications is nothing without connectivity, and connectivity is nothing without application, and TiVo is the best connected TV certainly in the U.K., and I would argue in the world because it’s produced by connected TV experts. It’s all they do. That’s why we partnered with them. That’s why it’s actually launched on time, because a lot of our peers decided that they would build their own. It has a net promoter score, major of advocacy (over detraction) of plus 30%. If I had a customer base that had a level of advocacy of plus 30%, I wouldn’t be standing here today talking to you, I would have retired.

It is a massive, massive driver of advocacy. Our customers absolutely love us. Every single review of TiVo puts it as the best way to watch TV bam bam and I’m obviously deliberately using that phrase and I may not use that but that’s what they are saying and that’s what you’re seeing on the billboards at the moment.

It is an amazing product and it allows us to create the glue between the social strength, the TV, the personal screen your PC or laptop and the remote screen, your smartphone and tablet somewhere in between, because you will be able to access. Just think about October, the second drop. The access your hard drive from another device. Your connected TV would by then know you. It will be recording things the things you’ve forgot to record.

It will allow you to go backwards and see that somebody has deleted something that you didn’t want deleted and you can undelete it; just lucky can on a PC. It will have applications like the Harry Potter app where we created an application around the launch of the first series where we had little clips and customers can go into Harry Potter and in they can go in and view and purchase Harry Potter. They can look at that video on demand library. It’s got the intelligence to look at how (linear open garden), a linear walled-garden in video-on-demand are now selected over the top. It will do for us in the TV space what DOCSIS 3.0 has done for us in connectivity

Mobile; so we saw for the first quarter the impact of mobile bonus. We drove a record 83,000 net contract ads in the quarter and some 47,000 – I think it was actually 50,000 contract ads into the home. That’s a 48% increase over Q2, 2010. So, you are starting to see now the acceleration of mobile into the home and that will continue as TiVo as an application is more powerful either by price or by feature on a Virgin Mobile as opposed to Voda or Orange or anything else. So that our customers will see the glue between their remote device and their fixed devices, and that would allow us to accelerate their quad-play and it will allow us to accelerate the very strong economics.

Those are some very strong, and positive, words. It really reinforces the importance Virgin Media is placing on TiVo as the focus for their TV efforts. Which also bodes well for their TiVo customers.

Oh, and did you catch this?“Just think about October, the second drop. The access your hard drive from another device.” It sounds like October is when they’ll be enabling streaming between units. And perhaps also when they’ll have the TiVo software load for their non-DVR platforms? It’ll be interesting to see.

Transcript spotted via The Virgin Media TiVo Blog.

Posted in Cable, DVR, Press Release, TiVo | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments

ReplayTV Service Gets a Last Minute Call From the Governor

Posted on Monday, August 1, 2011 by MegaZone

ReplayTV Logo As I posted previously, the ReplayTV program information service was schedule to end on July 31st. That would’ve effectively killed the ability of remaining ReplayTV boxes to record, except for those owners who hacked their units to use unofficial data sources. Well, it looks like the governor called at the last minute and the service got a reprieve. DNNA posted a new message on their site:

After the announced shutdown of the ReplayTV programming guide service, we have had many positive, enthusiastic comments about the ReplayTV DVR products and services. In light of this response, ReplayTV and its parent company Digital Networks North America, Inc. have decided to continue the electronic programming guide service pursuant to the terms of your service activation agreement. We thank you very much for all of your support and enthusiasm over the many years these products have been sold.

As we have said previously, the analog programming that the ReplayTV units are capable of recording is in fact likely to be converted to digital signals in the very near future at which point the ReplayTV units will no longer be able to record such programming. We encourage our users to consider digital video recorders that have this digital recording capability as well as additional technological advances which are not a part of the ReplayTV units (all of which were end of lifed by 2006). For monthly subscribers of the ReplayTV service, we are exploring options by which you may continue paying for and receiving such service going forward. We apologize in advance should there be any minor disruptions in the ReplayTV service while we implement the continuation of the programming guide. Thank you. ReplayTV

I noticed something interesting in their wording:For monthly subscribers of the ReplayTV service, we are exploring options by which you may continue paying for and receiving such service going forward. They specifically call out ‘monthly subscribers’ – but what about those with lifetime subs? I suspect they’re looking at doing something like transitioning ReplayTV boxes to Schedules Direct, the official data service for MythTV. As the community produced WiRNS software already uses Schedules Direct as a programming data source. Schedules Direct costs $20/year, so lifetime subscribers would have to pay the additional fee. And that’s only for 4k/5k units, as earlier units are dial-up only and there would need to be a dial-up infrastructure maintained. That could pay for itself via a monthly fee, but perhaps not for lifetime as there would be no revenue to cover the ongoing costs.

It’ll be interesting to see how this develops.

Posted in DVR, ReplayTV | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

A Big Gizmo – The Boeing 787 Dreamliner

Posted on Saturday, July 30, 2011 by MegaZone

Aviation Week Logo This is a bit larger than most of the gizmos I post about here, but I just wanted to share this video of the new Boeing 787 Dreamliner arriving at this year’s EAA AirVenture in Oshkosh, WI. I’m pretty sure I mentioned it before, but I’m a major aerospace fanboy. I got my pilot’s license during high school, but I stopped flying early on during college due to the old time/money issue – if I had the time I didn’t have the money, or vice-versa. I started out in college as an aerospace engineering major, though I ended up deciding it wasn’t the field for me so I switched majors in my fourth year. I’m still a fan though, and I read nearly every issue of Aviation Week cover to cover for fun.

I need to attend AirVenture again someday. I went twice during my teens with my family, and was fortunate to be there the year the SR-71 Blackbird made its last show appearance before its (first) retirement. I got a front row view of the Blackbird making a low pass down the flight line, just barely subsonic. The only word for it is ‘awesome’.

The B787 has suffered quite a few manufacturing delays, but it looks like it will finally enter service this fall as the newest and most advanced airliner in the world. Composite construction, all electric architecture, new ultra-high-efficiency turbofans, all kinds of high tech options for the cabin – from LED lighting to entertainment systems, etc. A flying collection of gadgets and gizmos. I hope I get to fly one before too long.

Via Aviation Week’s Things With Wings blog.

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