What about the Corel Visual Network Computer?
Sorry guys, this will be a long post. I took Leo's question very serious. Thanks Leo, for asking.
I think the question about the VNC can be broken up into a number of questions.
Leo in his investigation has discovered the most important questions already.
I read the literature list he made and compiled a list of questions and answers (added some myself), at the end of this post.
Not all answers are there yet. Corel has to come up with the answers real soon, of course before they launch the system.
Besides questions about facts there are matters of corporate strategy in relation to future developments. That of course is the really interesting part.
This is what I think.
A. The Monopoly Matter
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Many Corporate buyers (but not all of them!) see the Microsoft / Intel monopoly as a serious problem. They would like to have an alternative and are willing to buy products from a second vendor as soon as this alternative:
1. Is guaranteed to stay around for at least some (say 10) years
2. Is trustworthy
3. Can be fit in the corporate infrastructure
4. Can be used with the existing or alike software
5. Has the same or better quality and functionality for the user
Here the VNC, combined with Remagen and Java, has a change. But it will strongly depend on Remagen and the belief in the survival of Corel.
B. The Network
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A Network Computer needs a network, this means as long as you call it a Network Computer it will only be sold to places where reliable networks exist. The public network (Internet) is not considered fast enough, and this will not change for some years.
The fact that the Corel VNC can work as a standalone is a very good point, since in most place of the world they hardly keep the electricity flowing, let alone the communication network, but it is not enough.
If Internet providers or telephone companies or TV cable net operators want to sell these machines with their service, it would be great, because it offers an extra sales channel, sure payment and the possibility for ordinary consumers to get service level guarantees. But it would be restricted to certain areas where these companies operate.
So the NC is mainly meant for the corporate market.
Do companies have a corporate network? Can the management rely their core business on this network? I think this is not a common fact yet, but the corporate networks are winning terrain. Five years ago the management of the largest Research institute of Nederland (TNO) did not use email, in fact they wanted to stop all finance of the corporate network and Internet ..
Conclusion: the corporate market is insecure, but growing. The NC will have to aim at the precursors. In the first years, other returns will have to come from contracts with service providers.
C. Communication Needs
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Communication is a need for any enterprise, is always said. But how far does this really go? Will real money be spent on new technology in this area? In fact many companies do use email scarcely or not at all, let alone exchange electronic documents.
For instance the Dutch firm Philips Electronics NV (275,000 employees worldwide) has to fight serious automation problems. Because of the various departments being autonomous in the choice of computer systems, the company communication fails completely. "The lack of mutually compatible systems hinders the communication and the cooperation between people", said CEO Boonstra. The computers from one department often can not communicate with those from another department. Philips uses a mish-mash of systems, originating from a wide variety of manufacturers. Not only hardware and operating systems differ strongly, the SOFTWARE too comes from everywhere and nowhere. At Philips so many different systems for electronic mail are used that frequently files are damaged while sent.
I do not know how it is in the USA or Canada, but I think in my country (Nederland, Europe) Video is still seen as a gimmick, an unnecessary extra by most people. However, video conferencing gains terrain. People who need to have contacts with others far away and who have used a good system are quite satisfied.
Conclusion: There is a market for communication computers, but it is young yet.
There has to be a lot of convincing to be done to sell the video possibilities. Even the need for electronic communication within the company has to be advertised in many companies.
D. The Future Of The Concept
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I believe the future of the concept is great.
CEO's (like Boonstra from Philips) are getting aware of the need for electronic communication.
The market is getting tired of the Microsoft monopoly and wants an alternative without the risk of a second monopoly.
The market and all manufacturers except Microsoft are willing to accept Java.
Remagen and Java solve the software problem making all Windows software available everywhere (see my post 1481).
When TV cable operators are selling the NC there is a large and secure market.
The specs of the VNC are strong and sexy. If you buy it, you are not a follower, but a leader. It is not a stupid monitor, it is a real strong machine. It might even be strong enough to play Quake on it (did they think of that?).
The VNC can be used for all the things that a Wintel pc is used for today and many more. Like "a cellular, touch-screen, pen-friendly "network telephone" that will deliver a steady stream of high-value services and applications using Java"..
In some time there will still be all kinds of machines needed in companies. There will be machines for the secretary, for the financial administration, for the designer, for the counter, the archive, the infrastructure, servers for data and so on. But they all will be connected by one network and exchange text, voice, images, numbers and programs. Java will be the standard and Internet the main network. And the NC's will be capable to take care of a lot of this work, but not all of it. Dedicated machines will be there for special tasks. And the Microsoft / Intel monopoly is gone.
So the future looks great, but when will this be? Will Corel be around to profit? I do not know.
The Question List
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What are the facts?
Facts are hard to come by at the moment. Here is what was on the SI thread.
infoworld.com
cwlive.cw.com:8080/home/print9497.nsf/All/SL39vnc1609616096
When will it be ready Presented Oct 27, 1997
Price and costs Less then $1000 initially
Processor chip and speed StrongArm from Dec, very fast and trustworthy
Memory expandable to 64 MB, 4MB in the video subsystem
Storage devices Hard disk of several GB
Operating system Linux: Robust, Free, has sympathy from technicians
What will it look like
techstocks.com
.. "very streamlined small footprint box, 300 mH version planned,"..
Why should anyone want a Network Computer? techstocks.com
techstocks.com
.. "keep a lot of information in a few places instead of on everybody's workstation i.e. administratively it is a lot less work in large installations."..
.. "For those looking to cut costs, it sounds like a great machine for those with less than 'power user' needs." ..
.. "I'd sure as hell buy one, and I can think of a large number of others that would too."..
Is there a corporate market need to be filled by the Visual Network Computer? Corporations don't buy products, they buy solutions. .. "would this box be solving anything? Or is it just a product?" techstocks.com
.. " possible market is rent-a-box option for larger Internet providers."..
Does anybody want the Video part of the Visual NC?
Are there any buyers yet? techstocks.com
.."I have heard that two major companies will be launching new business networking services, and Corel's box and Corel's software will be one component of this alliance." ..
Will there be enough office products with good support, functionality, price, and performance at the same time?
techstocks.com
.. "Corel will have to release suite of office products with good support, functionality, price, and performance at the same time".
techstocks.com
.. "If the company (Corel) can produce an industrial-strength, feature rich office tools suite written entirely in Java , it could own the core apps market for Ncs"..
Or (better still for the VNC) Remagen has to be effective in enabling the use of all Windows software on the NC via the server.
Which bandwidth and quality does it demand from the network?
Can it also work as stand alone or is it worthless when the network is down?
techstocks.com
.."Wouldn't take much to turn the concept into a really sweet standalone."..
Does it conform to important standards and protocols for file systems and networks (DNS, NIS, DCE)?
Does it integrate with the other corporate systems?
Any Unix system can be integrated with the corporate systems, as far as the company is using Unix already. But there will be resistance since it differs from the other Unix variations and from proprietary systems already in the company.
Will the Linux OS be a problem for system administrators?
techstocks.com
.. "Not if they are UNIX system administrators."..
Why Novell or NT instead of Linux?
techstocks.com
.. "I wouldn't see that as a major problem.".. But Linux is free while NT and Novell are proprietary.
Which market does Corel Aim at?
Will Corel have enough marketing power to push this new technology? |
