day 96

twitch 8: what's wrong with this picture?

Fig. 7. Cheap and Easy is Good Enough for I-Man Internet TV seems to solve the problem of being cheap and easy. It could be the vid-game platform of the next century, and it could be the information appliance for just about everything. WebTV boxes have slots in them that accept SMART cards. There goes the banking industry. They have expansion ports for printers and cameras. There goes the film industry, They have software for downloading audio and video. There goes the long-distance telephone biz. They have access to the world's libraries. There goes the ball game. There is only one problem. There isn't much entertainment on the Internet. In fact, it is a drag. Will couch potatoes WANT to surf the Internet? What is in Wired World for Joe Lunchbucket? The burning question before us is this: What will Americans watch for 1,000 hours in 1997? Will it be inane sitcoms or the Internet? Will it be soap commercials or 3D VRML toys from Microsoft? Nobody knows, but my guess is that the Internet TV will kill off the vid-game console business within 3-5 years. Then it will take its toll on the home PC market. Eventually, it will invade business computing and render Wintel desktops obsolete for 75% of the tasks performed by PCs today. And what about MUDDs? Will I-Man spend $20/month just to play twitch games on his WebTV? You bet!

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