A Comment Note From Ruel:

Homebound and Mobile Devices

Originally appeared in the Ruel.Net Interactive TV Newsletter

19-NOV-99 - Ruel.Net - The big news this past week was about the gadgets over at Comdex in Las Vegas. One news report talked about how industry executives are not finding much common ground on what will happen in the post-PC era except that you will find simplier single-task or limited-task devices that you can use. The "divergence" among the viewpoints is whether consumers will want to get TV set-top boxes, wireless interactive phones, slimmed-down scaled-down computer-like internet devices, webpads, or some other type of device. Another news report said net appliances, particularly webpads, may make the WebTV obsolete (!).

IMHO, my take on all of this for the consumer is that you may have it all due to the wide "divergence" of interests and tastes of consumers. I think you will have both (a) homebound devices, such as the set-top box and the TV set, and (b) wireless devices for the mobile individual. My focus is on the home. All of the other gadget folks who are not necessarily focusing on the home will go hog wild for the wireless devices for the mobile individual. And that's all fine because you are either going to be at home OR elsewhere as a mobile individual. If you want to look at the future of entertainment and information electronics, just look at the kids who play handheld Gameboy devices and TV videogame consoles. Those kids play not just one or the other. They play BOTH! For those of you with kids, you know that they play BOTH! There is room for BOTH homebound and mobile devices.

Anyways, for the home, what I think will happen is that set-top boxes will definitely establish its place as an integral part of the entertainment centers of the living rooms of the world. The set-top box will be internet-capable, enhanced-television capable, and may have basic functions for digital video/audio recording and for playing DVDs/VCDs/CDs. The box would be a receiver and player of data, communications, and entertainment. The box may be accessible through a direct wire connection by the TV closest to it, and possibly by other TV sets in the home, and eventually by wireless webpads or e-paper tablets to simulate how people read paper products such as newspapers, magazines, and books. The box, whether it be a set-top box, a PlayStation console, or some other "base station," would be the information and entertainment data receiver center of the home from which you access whatever you need via the TV set or eventually by some other personal interface device such as a webpad.

You'll have all of the other fancy wireless devices for the mobile individual, but I think that you will always have some sort of data and entertainment receiver device, whether a set-top box or something built into the TV set, for the home.

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