iPod Update
January 27, 2005 @ 07:18 AMwhine... I’m so sick today. Sniffling, sneezing, coughing, aching, stuffy head, fever kind of sick. If only there was a medicine for something like that. Unfortunately it doesn’t help my work productivity. But my work has a sick-policy: “If you’re not throwing up, you can make it to work.” I suppose I could fake it…
iPod Update – Day 2
I have received the return box for my iPod! I packaged and delivered the return box to my local DHL branch a few moments ago!
Turnaround King? I realized something about myself today. I was talking with a friend about various technologies and companies, and I realized that I really wish I could be in a position to directly affect a high-tech company’s products. And to be honest, I think I would be very very good at it. Not that I just expect a company to make me CTO or something, and I don’t particularly care to create a startup company for some of my ideas, because I can look around and see a lot of areas were already established companies are failing to take advantage of their positions or learn from their failures.
Example? How about RealNetworks. Real is an odd company, because they seem to actually believe that people still use and like them. But it doesn’t take long, talking to end users, to find out that most people think their player is bloated, slow, full of commercial branding, etc. Furthermore, you practically have to be a Ph.D to figure out how to download the FREE version from their website. Their client-side media player technology is in need of a serious overhaul, but COULD be great again. RealPlayer suffers from the same problems that the original Mozilla browser did, and IT didn’t go anywhere either. BUT, some people inside Mozilla realized this and launched the Firefox project, which essentially took out every piece of the browser that was not essential to a good browser experience. And it’s taken off. RealPlayer could do the same thing. Slim down, make it easy to access, fast load-up times, etc… and people would use it again.
But that’s not even RealNetwork’s current strengths. Their current strength is content. They have a TON of it. And they have plenty of subscribers who like to use it. Now, what’s the next big thing in content?? Right, on-demand movies. Everyone’s talking about it, some people are doing it… and yet, despite all the buzz, they don’t really seem to be taking off. Why not? Because - and this is just my guess - most people want to buy and download and watch movies from their TVs, not their computers. Computers are designed for interacting, TVs are designed for mindless watching. I believe the thing that’s REALLY going to make movies take off will be putting all of the downloading and viewing responsibility into a set-top box.
Here’s where Real comes in. Sure, TiVo would probably be the best positioned company to take this on, but Real’s already got a great about of content that would help round out any set-top box offering. Furthermore, TiVo’s interface - while very effective - is extremely cartoonish and not at all sexy. The PVR industry desperately needs a “cutting-edge” company with the kind of interactive content supporting it that would really make people want to jump on-board. For a long time I’ve expected Digeo’s Moxi Media Center to be the answer to the problem, but even they are lacking on content/movie download services and they seem more like vaporware than anything (tho their screenshots are lickably sexy!).
Anyway, I’m just spouting off ideas. We’ll likely never know if they’d work or not.