What happens when you have a product that is designed for the masses but remains with the minority?
Nobody could ever figure out how to program a video recorder, but Tivo the king of DVRs fixed that – and so much more. Tivo created a really simple user experience, right down to the design of the remote. One click recording and wishlists and automated suggested recording.
Surely a DVR like this is must have at a time when people are shelling out 5 times what they used to for their TV experience just to hang a flat screen TV on the wall? And Tivo is not new, it predates plasma screens and DVDs, by all accounts, DVRs should be ubiquitous.
The problem can’t just be that DVRs are a threat to traditional business models. MP3 players are now commonplace having first appeared well after.
I suspect that the main problem is the payment model. DVRs come into their own with cable or satellite, but you rent them. I suspect that when it comes down to it people don’t like renting hardware at this price point and a DVR seems more like a piece of consumer electronics than a service.
I don’t have to rent an iPod or a DVD player and ever if TV’s are now so expensive that they require payment plans equivalent to a large car, perhaps there is a psychological difference between leasing and renting?
Would DVRs take off if I could walk into a store and buy a brand name version that doesn’t require the skills of a syadmin and hook it up to my cable service with no monthly fee?