day 107

alice in wired world 11: the vast wasteland of cyberspace

Inverse economics has enormous implications. First, think of the premium Macintosh market versus the junky Wintel commodity market. Simply by selling ten times as many boxes as Apple does, Wintel has roared past the Macintosh. Consumers can buy a commodity Wintel box that is almost as good as a Macintosh, but priced much less. Or, look at the (lower-volume) portable computer market space. A Pentium-based laptop computer costs almost $1,000 more than a comparably equiped desktop machine at the low end, and almost $1,500 more at the (even lower-volume) high end. Consumers pay a premium for less computer, simply because of inverse economics. Remember, inverse economics is volume economics -- the more boxes you make, the better thay can be per box. Now, what about the (potentially) vast wasteland of the Internet? Given the power of the Internet to "manufacture" products in extremely high volumes, might inverse economics produce extremely cheap, yet high quality content? Might wireheads have a chance to actually triumph over mediocrity? The world is about to be given a second chance. WebTV, ViewCall, Diba, Navio, and Welcome-to-the-Future are five companies who are going to give it a shot. These companies have put a variety of technologies and products on Christmas 1996 shopping shelves. After January 1, we will find out how well-received the Internet TV is going to be. And, it the boxes go out of the stores in large numbers, the Internet TV fad will ramp up with a vengeance in 1997.

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