It’s Official: Keurig’s Decision to DRM Their Coffee Pots Totally Backfired

UPDATE: Keurig admitted defeat and ended the DRM locks in May 2015

Do you remember the article I wrote before Christmas warning everyone about the DRM on the new Keurig 2.0 coffee pots?  Essentially, Keurig put a lock on their new pots that forced you to get their name-brand K-Cups or the new pot wouldn’t brew your coffee.  As you can imagine, this filled consumers with unbridled rage.  The average Amazon rating for a Keurig 2.0 pot is about 2 stars.

Well, guess what?  It was an abject failure and consumers responded to these new “updates” by staying away from the new coffee pots in droves.  The Verge is reporting that Keurig sales dropped a precipitous 12 percent last quarter, the first full quarter the pots were on sale.  Not only did people not buy, the people that actually did buy one took to the internet to complain.  Most complained how terrible it was that a corporation was dictating how they could use their own coffee pot and many others pointed out how much extra waste was produced by keeping people from using their refillable cups.  In fact, when you Google “Keurig 2.0” the first autofill suggestion is “hack” .

I think Keurig last sight of what made their coffee pots so successful, the fact that they are incredibly easy and fun to use.  You make your consumer base start worrying about what can or can’t be used in it and you lose your competitive edge.  we might as well use the old $10 Mr. Coffee drip with the paper filters.

The really crazy thing is there is no sign that Keurig has learned their lesson.  There are currently no plane to disable the existing DRM or remove it from future coffee pots.  Keurig, if you are listening, you’ve got an opportunity here to make back some good will by apologizing and fixing this issue.  Otherwise, all you’ve got is a generation of customers cursing your name every time the go to use the $200 coffee pot they wish they had never bought.