Tivo (TIVO) talks about differentiating its product, instead of compteting on price (quotes from conf call)

Below are some comments from Tivo (ticker: TIVO) from its March 10, 2005 conference call with investors.

This year we expect more competition, and we intend to compete by differentiating our product and services over generic DVRs….to increase investment in R&D and maintain this differentiation through innovation.

Last year we achieved high growth while competing with cable on a national level. As we look ahead to this year, recognizing that we will also be competing with DirecTV’s NDS box, we will be wrapping up our competitive offerings with service enhancements included in our $12.95 monthly fee….

We will focus on the markets in which we can add the greatest value and those which provide the highest return. These are markets that value our premium services. Our aim is to be the value leader not the price leader. Our offerings today reflect our leadership in this area.

It's our strategy to continue to add value to our service as the primary means of providing competitive differentiation.

Without question, we are positioned in the marketplace as the premium brand. Consumers buy TiVo because they want the best DVR experience….And we intend to make sure that our customers continue to feel that $12.95 a month for TiVo is great value for money.

Quick comment:  Although Tivo would like to position itself as a premium product, rather than competing on price with generic competitors, its not clear that consumers really differentiate between PVR makers.  Furthermore, Tivo would have to present a clearly superior product, but that isn't necessarily the case [see the recent post titled: Battle of the PVRs: a Tivo fanatic switches sides.]

(Quotes from the CCBN StreetEvents transcript.)