Known primarily as the world’s leading hard drive maker, Seagate at the CES show in Las Vegas threw everyone a curve ball today with the release of a non-hard drive product – the FreeAgent Theater HD Media Player.
That’s right Seagate has basically entered the home theater market. Seagate has been a champion of the storage business for many decades and I think they did that because they understood its role and place in the industry. This new announcement is right out of left field. How can consumers think of Seagate for viewing videos, movies or photos on a screen?
Pat King, senior vice president of Seagate’s Consumer Solutions Division, said at CES that consumers today are the number one creators and aggregators of digital content-most of which holds a sentimental or emotional value and is unfortunately trapped on their home computers. King is right on the first part, but not necessarily on the second. Yes, most of the content is on computers but that is how this new generation is watching videos and photos. They are not going to their TV to watch YouTube or Flickr. That would take an additional step that this generation isn't interested in taking. There is also a growing base of young people who are downloading TV shows and watching them on a PC or Mac. A lot of working professionals have turned to viewing content on a mobile screen.
I am not saying that no one is going to watch stuff on TV anymore, but the challenge for Seagate is to get consumers to view stuff on their media player on TV.
With this announcement, King and Seagate hopes to open up the company’s market from the computer room to the living room. However, the living room has expanded and is now everywhere.
I can see people using this if it was offered for free with the purchase of Seagate storage products, but the Seagate FreeAgent Theater media player solution will be offered through resellers in three different SKU options:
1. Stand alone media player with the remote control for $129.99;
2. Media player, remote control and 250GB FreeAgent Go for $229.99; and
3. Media player, remote control and 500GB FreeAgent GO for $299.99.
Seagate did make some other solid announcements at CES such as the Showcase DVR storage expander for those people who like to store movies and TV shows off a satellite network. This will be offered for Dish Network users.
Seagate also released two new additions to its line of Pipeline HD purpose-built hard drives specifically for digital video recorders.
All these releases are meant for Seagate to get more marketshare from the living room instead of the computer room and as always we shall see how it goes, but the FreeAgent media player maybe hard pressed to find a team to play on this year.
Tomorrow I will have a blog on LG's stunning Watch Phone.
One quick hit before I go.
This Satyam story is getting weirder by the second. The chairman of the troubled Indian outsourcer Satyam Computer Services tendered his resignation yesterday admitting that the company inflated its financial results.
In a resignation letter submitted to Satyam's board, B. Ramalinga Raju said the company's balance sheet carries inflated bank and cash balances, non-existent accrued interest, understated liabilities, and overstated credit amounts owed to the company.
Satyam's managing director, B. Rama Raju, Raju's brother, also resigned.
The irregularities in the balance sheet arose because the company inflated profits for the last several years, Raju said. Satyam is listed in India and the U.S.
Today comes word that Law firms Izard Nobel and Vianale & Vianale have filed class action suits in the U.S. on behalf of those who purchased American Depository Receipts (ADRs) of Satyam.
The lawsuits are among the first legal actions taken against the management of Satyam, which admits fiddling with company accounts to overstate profits. ADRs are U.S.-listed securities that represent shares in a foreign company.