DRM In New Coffee Maker Will Lock Out Refill Market

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You know DRM has gotten way out of control when coffee makers are using it.

Keurig's solution to this problem? In a lawsuit (pdf) filed against Keurig by TreeHouse Foods, they claim Keurig has been busy striking exclusionary agreements with suppliers and distributors to lock competing products out of the market. What's more, TreeHouse points out that Keurig is now developing a new version of their coffee maker that will incorporate the java-bean equivalent of DRM -- so that only Keurig's own coffee pods can be used in it.
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Yeah screw that. Those coffee makers make shitty coffee anyways. Chemex and Aeropress FTW.
 
Crazy right?
There's a reason I get all my Tim Horton coffee from Canada and still use a Bunn.
Let the hipsters with their flavored single serve coffee pods man up and drink something with a little backbone instead!
 
the fiance and I are coffee enthusiests. That said, we wouldn't touch a Keurig with a ten foot pole.
 
No way I'm going to use a nasty coffee pot that makes burnt coffee. I'll stick with my Keurig Vue tyvm.
 
I must feel bad: I don't own a coffee grinder or a overpriced coffee roaster. I guess I'm not hip or a coffee snob. :eek:
 
Lucky, I drink only tea: matcha, a traditional Japanese green tea and regular leaf tea (like Twinnings). No machines, only tea and water in a cup. :p
 
ir0nw0lf said:
I must feel bad: I don't own a coffee grinder or a overpriced coffee roaster. I guess I'm not hip or a coffee snob. :eek:
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You probably drink coors or some other piss water beer too :p


I can't see this going too well for Green Mountain/Keurig. Their Keurig Vue or w/e didn't do so hot as I don't see them anymore.
 
If you guys want some great coffee, well espresso, Nespresso is awesome. I might pay $0.70 cents a shot, but my double shot Americano is so good in the morning and evening.

On a side note, I think other manufacturers have been doing the barcode thing with their coffee already., Tassimo branded ones.
 
Interesting choice on the part of Keurig... make your market even smaller and make it harder to compete with the soon-to-come plethora of Keurig wannabes that will no doubt be cheaper and work just as good.

Meanwhile, those of us happy with our drip coffee makers and $7 cans of coffee that make 240 cups a piece will continue to silently chuckle as we watch the fools buying their K-cups...
 
If I drink coffee, I usually just microwave a cup of water and add some instant coffee. It all tastes pretty much the same to me. Though I do totally get picky about the kinds of tea I drink.
 
drescherjm said:
RFID chip in every kcup?
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This is my question - how do they plan on doing it?

We've got a Keurig in the staff room at school (mainly because, between staggered planning, kids-have-crises, and administrivia, you can't get two people to need coffee at the same time), but I can't see ever buying one at home. I am curious, though, how they plan on doing this and not driving the cost of K-cups up significantly enough to lose that market share they're so keen on keeping?

-Tuthmose
 
Keurig/Green Mountain has little to fear.
If I recall the whole of Green Mountain was purchased by either CocaCola or PepsiCo late last year.

My wife brought home a Keurig 2 years ago. I protested at first, but find it a very good system for lots of reasons.
I don't drink flavored coffee, but those who do, when they come over have a ton of choices.

I don't blame Keurig for trying to weed out impostors. Unfortunately the RFID will probably increase the price.
 
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We use a Cuisinart, the Keurig blew up after 6 mo. Anyway we get the K cups from Costco or Bed Bath & Beyond using their coupons. Some times we make our own brew with the plain wire mesh strainers. I guess if there is no DRM chip in the K cup it won't work with Keurig. I wonder if you could cut the RFID strip out of the Keurig cup and stick it on one of the other brands. What a joke, sounds like something Sony would do.
 
As far as I know GMCR has never been bought out. I could be wrong on that since I haven't followed them that closely. I was planning on applying to work at their headquarters in waterbury once I graduate next year but this will definitely sway my opinion. This just screams that the boston office is starting to have sway over the vermont office. They have been a great company to work for in the past but I would be willing to bet employee benefits start to go downhill if this is their new approach to things.
 
Over 2 years ago, Keurig lost the patent for the K-cup. This allowed everybody to create their own k-cups, cutting into the repeatable business for Keurig. So Keurig created the Vue machine and a new Vue K-cup. I'm guessing the 2 years is almost up and they will loose the patent on the Vue k-cups. If they are willing to put DRM in a k-cup, then they must be making tons of money from the coffee.
 
LOL @ all the coffee snobbery ITT.

Let Keurig back themselves into a corner with their locked out coffee machine. I like my Keurig platinum for the convenience of making a single cup of coffee and hope it becomes an industry standard like "xeroxing" so I could buy any manufacturer's kcup brewer.
 
Sometimes I wonder if people who whine about snobbery and defend Keurig have ever actually had good coffee. Single serve cup or pod coffee is ok if you're desperate.
 
If a business can't handle a little competition then it's not a business I want to be doing business with.
 
ChedWick said:
You probably drink coors or some other piss water beer too :p


I can't see this going too well for Green Mountain/Keurig. Their Keurig Vue or w/e didn't do so hot as I don't see them anymore.
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Actually, I drink Guinness, Yuengling, Sam Adams. Congrats on your stereotyping me. :rolleyes:
 
Bought a Keurig machine with a Refillable K-Cup, a couple years ago for my grandma, she hesitated to use it at first, but now loves it. As long as she can use the Tchibo coffee she so dearly loves, she's happy.

So yeah, not gonna get a model with some dumbass DRM requirement.
 
I hated the idea of Keurig for a long time. Then, I found one used for cheap. Bought it for $15. I use it daily and love it. It's great for a quick cup of coffee or few in the mornings before work.

DRM? It may be the last Keurig I own, sadly. I was actually looking to update to a new model... Can't support a DRM model for COFFEE, though!

Keurig coffee isn't premium coffee, nor do I think they market it that way. It's quick, easy and convenient. If I want a great cup of coffee, I bust out the grinder and the french press. But, for a quick, decent (it's not horrible unless you get the really cheap stuff) cup - Keurig is awesome. I'm a convert.
 
They will end up backpedaling on this pretty quickly. Pretty sure this will put Keurig out of business if they force the issue.
 
As much as I don't like it. Its called business. Every company does this in every industry. They try make things so no one else can eat potential revenue.

I'm sure if Brother or HP could make it to where their printer will only work with their ink or toner they would.

This is like when apple went with the lightning connector. It made it to where the iphone would only charge with their cable only.
 
We like our Keurig a lot (well, let's be honest, I hardly ever drink coffee so the GF is the one who loves it). Quick and easy for a single cup is the name of the game in our house and the Keurig does that splendidly.
 
I own a Keurig and use a refillable cup with coffee that I grind myself. It's quick and relatively painless, I just grind beans once a week. This change would suck, but I'm already planning to go back to my french press once my machine breaks. Despite the convenience it's very inefficient from a coffee per cup perspective.
 
-=Antimatter=- said:
it's very inefficient from a coffee per cup perspective.
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That's my only problem with it. If you want one cup, it's awesome. If you want 5 cups, it gets annoying.

As for the brew's quality, I'm no snob but i think it tastes great when you put the blend you like in the reusable cups.
 
Tuthmose said:
This is my question - how do they plan on doing it?
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Easiest way is to make some unique shape that allows them to get a patent on the design, maybe not just the shape but have some sort of loop/hook/hole that needs to have something happen to make it work and essentially make it illegal for anyone else to manufacture a similar cup that will make it work.
 
Keurig follows the home printer market model

Sell the coffee maker at cost, or below. Make the money up on royalties for each K Cup.

I don't know what the exact royalty cost is per cup, but I managed to pick up K Cups at 20 cents each. Considering there's about 7 cents in quality beans, and another 2, 3 cents per packaging, that's about 10 cents royalty per cup.

So far the model is working against them. The pressure flow valve they are using is very cheap and most break within a year. If they are selling them at $100/pop (cost $100 to make) and most fail under warranty, that means they would have to sell 1000 k cups to each machine every year. Not the smartest business model.

BTW: The reuseable K Cups (We have one) are frought with their own problems. Unless you grind and pack the beans a specific way, you mess up the back pressure system. (Too much back pressure from grounds packed to tightly causing premature pressure flow valve failure and incorrect flow rate.
 
Meh, I'll stick with my regular ole drip coffee maker. At least I can make a whole 10 cups at one time if I want.
 
They are going to shoot themselves in the foot of they do this. I Own and like my Keurig very much and here is why.

I never drink more than 1 cup..so making a pot is a waste for me.
I use a reusable pod, I don't buy their pods, though my wife does rarely, but when she does it is from amazon where she can get them for well under 50cents a pod.
I mostly drink cuban espresso blends and honestly this thing does a fairly good job. It isn't perfect no, but it is about the best cuban I can get for under $600. That I got the thing on sale for $100 makes it a steal honestly.
It's fast..It takes me no time to fill a pod, pop it in and having a cup that is the perfect temperature every time.

So while the machine isn't perfect it serves my purposes very well. Coffee is all about the beans anyhow. Good beans = Good coffee..period. That of course doesn't stop me from wanting a really nice high end espresso machine, but I have more important things to buy right now and this is far from bad.
 
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