I bought a new TiVo. A few months ago, they came out with a dual-tuner box so that you can record two things at once. For years I’d been fine with recording one thing, because I was usually home during the relevant conflicting time periods, and could TiVo one thing and watch the other. What with the no longer being in school thing though, I really needed to upgrade. Initially I held out for the HD dual-tuner, because eventually I will get an HD TV, but they slapped an $800 price tag on that sucker. The $30 regular dual-tuner seemed like a better deal, you know?
So I bought a new TiVo. And everyone kept asking me why I didn’t just get Comcast DVR, which already tapes two things and does so in HD if you get the right box. My main reason for not doing so is that Comcast is the devil, and as irrational as it might be to pay a little more for TiVo, I stubbornly refuse to give Comcast more of my cash money than is absolutely necessary.
But there are other reasons. I’m brand loyal like a puppy. I love TiVo, with its cute sounds and colors and happy menus and dancing TV logo. I want them to do well, and I want them to continue to innovate, and I don’t want to live in the world where Comcast DVR is the only option (DRAMATIC!). I like being able to download shows to my computer, or to another TiVo (because someday, I will have a house, and there will be many TiVos), and I like being able to schedule things online.
I have a long history of such stubborn refusals to move on to rationally better choices. My first computer was a Mac, and until I went to college, I would only work on a Mac. I regret my decision to go to PC, since now I really want to go back to Mac (and now that you can dual-boot with Windows on a Mac, I probably will). I love the iPod, and I don’t care if there are cheaper, equally good players out there (or, with the impending Zune, potentially "better" players). (I have a fairly deep-seated hatred of Microsoft that was beginning to fade, but was fully resurrected when they announced that Zune would not be supported on Macs; that’s just petty, Bill.)
Nintendo has arguably long since been outstripped in terms of game engine capability by the PS2 and X-Box. I plan to be first in line to buy a Wii regardless. I clung fast to the Gamecube, despite the rather paltry number of titles that were released for it, because the games that were released were gorgeous and playable and interesting (they had better be, since it seems to take Nintendo and its software partners about 4 years per game). I like that the Gamecube, and the Wii, and small and well-designed, and I like that the DS and DS Lite come in colors. I know they are less powerful and less cool, but Nintendo has been good to me since 1985, and I feel I owe it to stick around.
Companies like Microsoft won’t innovate unless there are companies like Apple and Nintendo, the underdogs, to do so first. So even when those companies fall behind the curve (TiVo), I feel the need to keep buying, to give them the chance to make a comeback and come out with the Next Big Thing (Apple).
Plus, I like it when things come in colors.
Posted by rotablog 