which actually costs you $150 or so,
Two things to consider:
1) I would be surprised if the marginal production costs on a 40-hour tivo are anywhere near $150. I see $40 VCRs out there. Ok, so a Tivo is a Linux-based machine, but still. Perhaps some business+techies out there might hazard a guess on the real cost.
2) If they have a lot of machines in stock, the marginal cost of giving away the units is irrelevant, they're sunk costs. The whole equation may actually be very attractive as it reduces inventory holding costs and locks in payments that more than offset the value of the machine
Oh, and
3) The max revenue on the unit is not $300 lifetime. That is the max revenue if the lifetime option is chosen...and most choose the month-to-month. At a 4-5 year lifespan, that's more like $620-$750 ($330-$420 if it's not the first unit). Not too shabby.
actually, i prefer Windows MCE 2005 watching on my tv with a Linksys Media Center Extender
I've seen plenty of posts about MCE. But it is a niche product, and will remain a niche product for a long time. Yes, perhaps Xbox 360 will capture some DVR share, but Microsoft still has to prove itself there, and it's a growing pie anyway. Competition can help build the market.
i think it would make a lot of sense for more cablecos to adopt Tivo, but that's different from the original direct service model.
It's not one or the other. Tivo can serve MSO customers both directly and indirectly. I'm not sure how set in stone the "direct service model" ever was, considering they've been "in bed" with DirecTV for many years in indirect mode.
Andre |
