At one of the first, now defunct, Comdex computer shows that I attended in the late 90's, I attended a round table discussion on Internet Appliances. This was a huge buzz word at the time, but unfortunately it was ahead of its time. An Internet Appliance did only two things…browse the Internet and email. The picture I'm showing in this story was known as the Netpliance from a company called I-Opener. The idea was great, but at the time Internet connections were dial-up only and the Internet had not attained a true critical mass of users.
In today's world, we are more connected than ever and even our cell phones have faster Internet access than dial-up. Computer users rely on the Internet connection almost like a fourth utility (electricity, gas, and water are the other utilities I'm counting). In my daily travels to help you computer users, I see that a vast majority of computer users only use their machines for email and a little Internet. The next biggest group uses their computers for the same activities plus a little word processing and downloading their photos from a digital camera. Although computer prices have come down in price, they still provide to much complexity and wasted computer power for these tasks.
I think the time is ripe for someone (I wish I was an inventor) to come up with a new Internet Appliance. If someone can come up with a machine that has these features for under $200, I think a whole new niche can be filled:
- Small footprint to attach to an existing TV (a la Web TV) with a USB Port for retrieving digital photos from a camera and to hook up a printer (or Blue Tooth capability)
- Wireless keyboard and pointing device
- High Speed connectivity
That's it. No hard drive. No CD or DVD burners. No countless wires dangling from the back of hulking black or beige box. The Internet has matured so much, that such a device would allow the user to store their photos online, create and store word processing, spreadsheets and other documents online, play games online, and duplicate almost any other common computer task online.
The time is right, the Internet is rich, and we don't do much else with our computers. Come on you inventors or capitol investors, bring back the Internet Appliance.
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