Tim Almond

I’m thinking that the vision that was promoted by people like Sun and Larry Ellison of Oracle of a "Network Computer" may be ready to reappear. I think there is a market out there for people with a secure machine with a base set of applications, and the possibility to run further applications.

Personally, I think there’s a huge market out there. Lots of people don’t particularly want to adminster their machines, and their needs are simple - email, browsing, photo management, letter writing. The games they might play are more likely flash puzzles than a 3d shooter.

The original network computers of the late 90s did not do well, but we have to consider what has changed since then:-

• Faster connections. Downloading applets on a 33.6K modem was never going to take off. But 1mb DSL will do it fine.
• Audience. In the late-90s, most people using the internet were technically aware of what they were doing,  and could look after their machines.
• Threats. There was not a major problem with viruses, and the term spyware was unused in the late 90s.
• Price. The price of equipment is constantly falling, allowing cheap machines with a dedicated purpose to be built, including zero-cost operating systems.
• More web-based services. In the late 90s, you didn’t have tools like route planners, webmail or project management tools in the way we do today.

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Tags: Technology //