Re: *SW* WebTV May Vanish?

At 03:09 PM 9/21/98 -0500, you wrote:
>
>
>
>Hi all,
>
>Thought eveyone might be interested in this, considering the disdvantages
>of trying to code around WebTV.


While the WebTV branch set-top box may vanish, Microsoft has already signed
a deal with cable equipment company GI to provide limited
browser-capability for about 15 million set-top CABLE boxes beginning in 1999.

The idea here is that a Web-only box isn't going to make it (hence the
predicted "death" of WebTV as a hardware brand): but a single box that
handles your digital TV connection plus a built-in browser will.

Many of the WebTV limitations are not so much limitations of that box as
they are facts of life when using a TV screen for a monitor.

Part of the big push for this is coming from the online banking folks. It
costs a bank about $1 to process an in-branch transaction: the same
transaction submitted through Internet-enabled Quicken or similar software
only costs about a penny. So the banking industry has already indicated an
interested in helping Cable providers get --some-- kind of Internet-enabled
TV banking into more homes.

Here are some references:

Microsoft and GI deal:

http://www.news.com/News/Item/0,4,21753,00.html?st.cn.nws.rl.ne

Microsoft, Sony, and GI:

http://www.news.com/News/Item/0,4,23299,00.html?st.cn.nws.rl.ne

Beyond that, expect even more kinds of Web-enabled devices to pop up in the
next two years, from palmtops to digital phones with some kind of browse
technology.

Web Designers will continue to have to address the basic fact of Web life:
the Web is a broadcast medium. Visitors will have a wide variety of needs
and a wide variety of technologies for access.

Regards,
Duif


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