TV may be next Super Computer.....................
usatoday.com
TV may grow into next supercomputer
Microsoft is moving aggressively on several fronts to wedge into the TV industry of the future.
Who can blame it? At most, only 40% of residences have personal computers, and only 25% of homes have access to the Internet. When people venture into cyberspace, they do so over phone lines with PC modems that are often slow. To tap non-PC households, Microsoft and a host of competitors are intent on making TVs and hybrid TV-PCs capable of accessing the Internet at blistering speeds and displaying new digital TV programming. Last month, Microsoft purchased start-up WebTV for $425 million. WebTV provides programming and sells a TV-top box that lets people surf the Web with a TV-like remote-control device and a wireless keyboard.
Microsoft is betting that someday it can help make the TV a fast, consumer-friendly device. To that end, Microsoft's $1 billion investment in Comcast in June. The deal gives Microsoft an 11.5% stake in the cable company. Comcast is deploying networks that can deliver information at speeds fast enough to make the Web a truly useful way to get information and tap Web services. "We think we can accelerate this activity," said Microsoft CEO Bill Gates when he made the announcement.
Someday, smart cable boxes might let TV programming be delivered with all kinds of related material that people can view simultaneously, perhaps on a TV or hybrid TV-PC, which Compaq and Gateway 2000 are already making. In fact, Windows 98, the successor version to Windows 95, will offer a way for PC users to add on a TV card (about $400) that will let their PC receive satellite or broadcast TV signals along with related Web data. So someday you might scroll through player statistics while watching a sporting event.
While Microsoft CEO Bill Gates calls such innovations "a new opportunity for the PC," others doubt that such programming will take off. In any case, it reflects Microsoft's desire to converge TV and PC technologies to create a rich multimedia experience, whether the content is a souped-up movie or sports channel, or programming sent by a Web site or a TV service provider. "We're forging ahead into the wilderness," said Microsoft group Vice President Pete Higgins. "It's all new territory." |
