HOT HOT .............aeth,vixl,mcom.....Comdex, the computer industry's largest show, is
expected to attract 200,000 visitors. The hot
areas at the weeklong gathering in Las Vegas are
expected to be e-commerce, broadband and
so-called information appliances. These
slimmed-down gadgets, such as Palm Pilots and
set-top boxes, allow users to surf the Net without
all the hassle of logging on through a PC.
"Right now in the Net-appliance space, the only
real products springing up are hand-helds, cell
phones and set-top boxes," said Michelle
Abraham, a senior analyst at In-Stat. But already
Abraham has seen early developments that add
Net access to refrigerators, for instance.
"There's a big push in the Net appliances,"
Abraham said, but she conceded that some of it
is "high-end, how-far-can-we-go" enthusiasm. |
