“TiVoToGo™ transfers are a new TiVo service feature available to all networked TiVo® Series2™ DVRs. This service enhancement allows you to transfer programs from your TiVo box to your desktop or laptop PC so you can watch your favorite programs on that PC wherever you take it. Also, we’ve partnered with Sonic Solutions to offer DVD burning of these transferred shows. In mid-January 2005, we’ll be offering a free trial to a downloadable version of Sonic MyDVD. This will enable DVD burning of your favorite shows if you have a DVD burner on your PC.”
Is this technology important? No, not really. What is important is the concept. Whether this particular execution is the “killer app” or not, the concept is here to stay. Watch and record has been with us since the VCR became available to a mass consumer audience. And, let’s face it, VHS tapes are pretty portable and they are extremely inexpensive. The difference here is form factor.
Seth Haberman (one of the smartest people I know) likes to ask a rhetorical question, “Why do they put microchips in sneakers?” He always answers while you are still processing the question with a raised brow and a quirky smile, “because they can.” People are going to do this … because they can.
Marty Yudkovitz, president of TiVo, is the vice chairman of the AMC so I hope that this is Tivo’s “killer app.” But even if it is not, they have once again pioneered a technology that will cause a massive change in the way we watch television. 