Newspapers and the net - was Re: Stupidest Quote etc

[Frank O'Connor]

At 5:20 PM +1000 20/8/98, Dan Tebbutt wrote:
>Frank O'Connor wrote:
>
>(i've rearranged the order and cut out a lot)
>
>>My bottom line on all this is that as long as the Net requires people
>to
>>use a PC to access it, it's gonna be a fairly fringe activity.
>
>>What's needed is a
>>ubiquitous and transparent Net access
>
>>But Web TV hasn't really fulfilled its promise.
>
>given points 1 and 2 (which i thoroughly agree with), it's *way* too
>early to be writing off WebTV. what you see now is essentially a version
>1.1 product. it's got plenty of evolution ahead of it and it's silly to
>write off the concept cos the first iterations are a bit dodgy. it's
>like writing off PCs based on the Apple I or the TRS-80, or writing off
>Windows based on version 2.0.

I didn't write it off ... but in the final analysis the Web TV methodology
(set top box, using rasterised displays, one fragm,ent of the Net catered
for etc) is hardly satisfying in its current incarantaion. With digital
television it may become something else.

>if WebTV-style devices aren't huge in 10 years, the Web will truly be a
>lost cause. BUT remember (as someone once observed) the Internet took 25
>years to become an overnight sensation.

My one problem with the assumption of Web TV boxes being around in 10 years
time is digital convergence. Bottom line, I think it unlikely that Web TV
is anything more than a transitional means of integrating Web and TV. In
future the HDTV will have a heap of stuff incorporated in its gigabyte of
ROMs or FlashRAM that integrate the experience much better than a
standalone device like WebTV could. When that happens, the ubiquitous
personal computing device won't be the PC, or Web TV or the like ... it
will be the device which combines all their functionality into a single
product. HDTV. Elements of Web TV will be in there, and elements of an OS
(although defintely not a Wintel, Mac or UNIX OS), and elements of the
phone, the video recorder and the like.

Just my 2 cents worth.

				Regards,
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I is knot dain bramaged!
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