Internet To Change The Face Of The PC World
By Neal Boudette
Saturday March 20 12:52 AM ET
HANOVER, Germany (Reuters) - The Internet isn't just for PCs anymore.
Personal computers aren't about to disappear, but their status as man's main link to cyberspace is going to come to an end soon, judging from the buzz at Germany's massive CeBIT trade fair this week.
''Right now people are tethered to the desktop when they want access to the Internet,'' said Steve Tobak, vice president for marketing at chip maker National Semiconductor Inc, which came to CeBIT to show off a variety of mobile computers that it thinks will free Net surfers from PC-dependence.
''We envision a world of inexpensive, non-PC devices that will connect to the Internet,'' he said. ''Kids will have something they take to school. There will be devices that download music, devices for checking news or stock prices wherever you are.''
Mobile phones makers agree, and they used CeBIT to announce partnerships and products in the race to get online. Motorola Inc (NYSE:MOT - news), for example, said Internet capabilities will soon be a standard feature of its cellular phones.
''Consumers can expect to see the first Internet browsing capability on a Motorola phone by the end of the year, and across our entire digital phone range in 2000,'' Chief Operating Officer Bob Growney said this week at CeBIT, a computer and telecommunications show that has grown into the world's largest trade fair.
Finland's Nokia Oyj is moving even faster. It has already created a ''micro browser'' -- a miniaturized version of the PC software used to navigate the Internet -- that can display data from cyberspace on a mobile phone display.
At CeBIT, which is expected to bring about 700,000 visitors to Hanover in northern Germany by the time it closes its doors on March 24, Nokia showed how a traveler could make flight reservations over a mobile phone, and get instant notification of changes in the airline's schedule.
Yet phones are not the only Internet-worthy devices on the rise. National Semiconductor, which makes low-cost, compact computer chips for small devices, demonstrated its WebPad -- a tablet-shaped computer with a large screen and no keyboard.
''This is the kind of thing you can carry around in your house while you're eating breakfast and checking e-mail or the news from Internet,'' Tobak said.
National expects three or more companies to hit the market with ''information appliances'' based on the WebPad by Christmas, and said interest is coming from a wide variety of industries, not just the computer business.
''You can just imagine supermarkets using a product like this to check shelves and order goods.''
Even PC companies believe the Internet won't remain tied to the desktop machines that they now ship by the tens of millions each month.
At CeBIT, Compaq Computer Corp (NYSE:CPQ - news) said it planned to release a handheld computer, the Arrow 2100, that connects to the Internet. |
