They say a week is a long time in politics, but it seems, 24 hours in the electronics retailing game is even longer.
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This morning, JB Hi-Fi chief executive Richard Uechtritz was quoted in a number of daily metropolitan newspapers as saying that TiVo “wasn’t up to scratch specs-wise and price-wise”, and adding that, “”At the moment, it will be a hard sell because it’s something brand new,” he said. “Will people go out and spend $700 on something they don’t particularly understand right now?”
In other words, JB HiFi was giving the distinct impression that it wouldn’t be going near TiVo, not even with a 10-foot barge pole.
But, fast forward to 12.58 pm this afternoon and things seem to be getting a lot less certain.
In an interview with channelnews, Richard Uechtritz, although not wanting to comment in-depth about the whole TiVo issue, nor on the other media reports, did say that, “at the moment we are having discussions with TiVo about the whole issue”, and adding that the discussions were to see “whether some arrangement can be met” with TiVo.
And although the JB HiFi CE did not want to comment any further, it seems there is some serious number crunching going on today down at the JB HiFi HQ in Melbourne over whether it is better to ignore or embrace TiVo.
From a technical standpoint, the problem, as JB HiFi sees it, is that TiVo has half the storage capacity of the iQ2 and can record fewer programs simultaneously and also requires a broadband connection to run its electronic program guide, unlike the iQ2 – and that’s even before you get to the $700 price tag.
We will just have to wait and see whether TiVo ends up on the shelves at JB HiFi and Harvey Norman or if it misses out being sold by Australia’s top performing electronics retailer altogether.
