Many people either don't
want or can't have a cable infrastructure retrofitted to their homes, and the wireless option is
very attractive.
I'm making my prediction based upon observations of how people buy stereo equipment. You don't see stereo components that communicate via wireless. The only wireless part is with i/o devices: speakers, headphones, microphones. I think that home computer systems will be like this. You won't have your computers all over the place; they'll be stacked together in a room of your house. Only i/o devices will need to be located elsewhere. The primary type of i/o device will be an NC. This allows easier management of data in one centralized location, with easy accessibility from any NC in the home.
Moreover, the majority of homes will opt out of having their own stand-alone computers and will be primarily NC-based, outsourcing their computing to some third-party.
Second, please explain your scenario
for NC's as the "command and control" center. It seems like that would be immense overkill for
conveying control sequences to turn down the volume, change the channel, etc. Also, please
define a mini-NC, i.e. what's in it.
A mini-NC will be essentially a remote-control device. It will be different from today's remote controls in that it will be a fully-programmable device with a small screen. Also, instead of having lots of predefined buttons, it will have a touch screen. It will probably look more like a 3Com Palm Pilot, with a wireless (probably IR) interface added. |
