TiVo’s direct hardware business has been a long time dying but has at last expired. This will have no impact on consumers since TiVo will continue selling own branded boxes via its web site as well as through Amazon and other online outlets. The only difference will be that these will be made by an as yet unnamed hardware manufacturing partner so in effect TiVo becomes another distributor of its own products. Yet its main business has long been software and UI design as well as IP licensing so finally quitting hardware manufacture itself makes sense in aligning the business. Hardware had become loss making, which raises the question why it has taken so long to quit. TiVo only went…