Goodbye, TiVo

[Commentary] A decade ago, TiVo was an obvious thing to own for anyone who took television seriously. TiVo was ahead of the curve: it had basically invented the DVR, after all. It had years of experience on its scattershot competition. The user interface was fantastic. The iconic "peanut" remote felt at home in the hand. But then something happened. Well, actually, nothing happened. TiVo innovated at a pace unbefitting its role as a disruptor; it got weirdly complacent for a company that was facing constant threat from the cable and satellite providers who were creeping on its only game. Behind the scenes, TiVo was effectively becoming a patent-holding firm, treating its shrinking customer base like a sideshow. It kept selling hardware, even as it put that hardware on the back burner internally.