Reading this made me think of the irony of digital media and television convergence, namely that Steve Perlman started WebTV after he left Apple (1995?) and took a lot of the patents for technology to integrate network access and television, which of course included a bunch of patents for display technology. So if Apple did acquire Tivo they would be acquiring a company that they originally innovated a lot of the technology for but never brought it to market (kind of like the PDA business... anyone still have a Newton?)
Link: Apple and TiVo - I think not. But there is another :).
There's been a rumor floating around all day about Apple buying TiVo that seems to be centered around the wishful thinking of a wall street analyst. It does show the power of rumor as TiVo's stock seems up on the news. I think it's not likely. For someone to want TiVo, you need to want to buy the brand, the technology and perhaps the subscribers. Apple's not a big fan of TV consumption and is not likely to want to want to get into the standalone DVR business at this point. Even if they did, I suspect Apple could build the technology themselves cheaper (and even if you think they can't, I suspect they think they can.). The TiVo brand is also not Apple's style. Apple likes strong brands that aren't generic, like iPod. TiVo has come to serve as a generic term for DVR. Lastly, Apple isn't in the subscription business and if they were to get into that space, it would likely come to music first. I don't think there are a lot of buyers for TiVo at the moment and if there are, they probably will wait for them to lose some more money first and get them on the cheap. So who might be interested. Not Microsoft. I doubt the cable/satt companies would find allure there these days. There is one c
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