Remember this bit of Interenet spec news which drove Zenith to $26?
May 10, 1996, Zenith Plans TV Set That Can Access Internet Without PC
By JOHN MARKOFF SAN FRANCISCO -- Zenith Electronics Corp. announced Thursday that through a partnership with Diba Inc. it planned to market by October a television equipped with both a high-speed modem and an Ethernet connection to make it possible to connect easily to the Internet without the expense of a personal computer.
Diba is a small Silicon Valley company that designs software and
hardware to make it possible for television viewers to browse the
Internet.
Zenith has been one of the most recent beneficiaries of the high
expectations surrounding the booming Internet marketplace. Monday, the
company's shares leaped $7.125, to $22.875, on the New York Stock
Exchange. During the previous six trading days, Zenith had climbed
$16.75, or 273 percent, on volume of more than 47 million shares.
The boom in the company stock price was linked to announcements that
Zenith planned to enter the Internet cable modem business, which would
permit personal computer users to connect to the Internet via cable
networks.
Zenith, of Glenview, Ill., which is ranked number two among television
manufacturers in the United States, said Thursday that this fall it
would offer for as little as $899 a 27-inch television set equipped with a high-speed modem and an Ethernet connection.
Such a product would be far less expensive than a competing system now
being offered by Gateway 2000, one of the nation's largest personal
computer mail-order companies. The new Gateway Web TV personal computer is designed around a 31-inch monitor, is priced at $3,500 to $4,000 and is also customized for connecting to the Internet.
The contrast between the Gateway and Zenith approaches highlights a
bitter debate in the computer industry over whether it is possible to
design simpler, less expensive systems than personal computers to offer video, entertainment and information services over the Internet as well as some simple features like electronic mail and word processing.
"What Gateway did was add a tuner to a personal computer," said Albin F. Moschner, Zenith's president and chief executive officer. "We think
we're taking a more cost effective approach, and we think this is easier to use."
If the low-cost systems take off, they could prove damaging to the
personal computer industry, which has argued that adding computing to
televisions would fail because the devices lack high-resolution screens and disk storage.
However, a number of industry analysts see a significant market for
devices that offer Internet services without the complexity of today's
personal computers.
"We'll see several such devices on the market by fall," said Richard
Shaffer, editor of the Technologic Partners Computerletter, an industry publication. "It's not a replacement for a PC, but you will be able to do a variety of useful things."
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My read is that the Diba version got axed along with Moschner, a little over a year ago. LGE didn't want ZE to get ahead of the curve. Smart move, as usual... The Koreans are five steps ahead of the competition...including the Japanese. Couldn't think of a better partner for Zenith than LGE.... |
