TiVo, the American pioneer of the digital video recorder, has developed an app for Apple’s iPad. This companion app for TiVo Premiere will soon be available in the iTunes store and is expected to turn the iPad into the world's ultimate remote control network. In actual fact, with the app, TiVo has created a two-screen TV experience, including all search, browse, discover and share functions.
This is yet another important development for both TiVo and the apps phenomenon. TiVo is becoming a strong player in the Connected TV market, driven by a number of agreements with (cable) operators: Virgin Media (UK), ONO (Spain), Suddenlink (US) and recently, Canal Digital (Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland). TiVo is therefore already a pioneer in this market. But by continuously developing the product, TiVo is becoming an even more attractive partner for operators. And as to the apps market: the sky is the limit as regards to the human imagination. Take Amazon for example, which is set to come out with a very different sort of app: the iPhone Price Check app. The app transforms the iPhone into a barcode scanner, using an on-board camera. Apps for scanning bar codes are not new, but Amazon has topped them all by adding other features to the phenomenon of comparison shopping, taking it to new level. Talk about convergence...
The TiVo app is also interesting because it turns the iPad into a companion screen. Here the app counters one of the standard objections to Connected TV: connected TV is completely unattractive to the seasoned couch potato (see our commentary "Google TV takes on the couch potato”), and is also incompatible with the shared character of television. When a family or a couple roommates watch TV together, no one wants to see any personal messages. And someone constantly zapping is also annoying for the rest of the viewers. Behold the TiVo app: such features (messaging, zapping, Facebook, Twitter, etc.) can take place on the second screen without disturbing the social aspect of watching TV.
Telecompaper will hold its Connected TV 2011 conference at the end of April.
