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Apple, Tivo Battle for PC TV Convergence

This is an interesting battle that is shaping up. I am not convinced that the real battle is between Tivo and Apple. While Apple has filed patents for a DVR, they still have not tried to market one. Creating a DVR is no big deal and they certainly have the technical expertise to create one and they have no doubt been able to do if for quite some time. So the question is, why haven't they done so. Simple reason--Patents. Tivo has them and Apple is scared to enter the market using a work around. They just saw EchoStar get banged for $128 million. At this point Apple could be risking billions to release a DVR. Without the ability to record television content, there really is no contest here. The Xbox 360 can download movies and content but doesn't have a TV tuner. MS Windows Media PC can record programs and can receive TV, but who really wants to go to their PC to play programs on their TV, only sophisticated users. And it might be infringing on Tivo's DVR software patents.

Perhaps the biggest challenge to Tivo is IP TV as presented by SBC. Their DVR can record content from multiple TV's in a household, thus eliminating the need for multiple Tivos. However, there are bandwith considerations and possible patent issues as well. The product is being perfected for an obvious national release. However, I have not heard of their convergence plans, such as showing Youtube video etc.

Finally there are many "convergence" features that Tivo currently has that are poorly promoted, such as watching movie trailers and buying tickets, flickr review of pics, home movie broadcast, ability to watch video an listen to podcasts and numerous other features like playing your computer music library through your HD TV and home theatre. With all this going for it, Tivo just needs a few lucky breaks, like adoption of their interface by Comcast, Cox, Cablevision and Time. They've already got Comcast and Cox on board.