Naveen Jain on 'Thin Client' Vs other devices PCs and all.
Ratan:
Here is a bit more information which might be useful when making investment decisions.
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PCs Wane (Again)
The Take
March 01, 1999
by Phil Harvey
The thin-client buzz is becoming deafening once again. This time, though, tech companies and investors are pouring money into the future of information appliances, not just yammering for the sake of sounding futuristic, like some Esther Dyson clone.
At the BancBoston Roberston Stephens technology conference last week, many seemed fixated on the emergence of info appliances and thin clients, which are low-memory computers that rely on servers. Money managers listened intently at executive presentations, queried venture capitalist panel and paused to soak up every word of "Business Week's" March 8 issue, whose cover story, "Beyond the PC," pays homage to a computing future of diversified devices.
In fact, venture capitalists all but tripped over each other Tuesday to be the first to tag software-application outsourcing as the wave of the future. Soon, they say, all you'll need on your desktop to do just about anything is a thin client--not a PC.
But although almost any software application lends itself to a rewrite for thin clients, as Bill Younger of Sutter Hill Ventures points out, the problem with implementing the thin-client model is the lack of broadband connections to the Internet.
When broadband finally gets here, thin clients and info devices will go gangbusters, they say. The question remaining, then, is just how wildly popular they can be. At one point Arthur Patterson, a founding partner with Accel Partners, reminded the audience that a television is nothing more than a thin client, and with the right connectivity, TV can be pretty interesting, too.
A Cool Chip
On Wednesday, National Semiconductor (NSM) chief Brian Halla assured those at his company's presentation that, while National is taking its licks in the PC chip market, its rising star lies in the information appliance market, thanks to its Cyrix subsidiary, and the DVD chip market, thanks to its Mediamatics technology.
Most interesting was Halla's account of the recent successful showing of the Cyrix-based WebPAD product at Comdex. The WebPAD is National's conceptual design of a portable, wireless consumer device that would be used mostly for Internet Access. Think of a cross between a Palm PC and a space-age Etch-A-Sketch.
"Bill Gates brought his staff by twice to see a product that's not based on Windows," Halla says. The technology within the WebPAD, Halla says, is optimized for applications. In other words, expect to see phone pads, photo pads and other similar single function devices soon.
Halla also mentioned that, as of right now, many info devices are being designed around Cyrix chips instead of ones made by Intel. He says that because the Cyrix line runs at a lower temperature, it eliminates the need a PC fan.
Let There Be Content
Let's say people really do start building and buying these info devices. Then what will they see on them? InfoSpace.com Inc. (INSP) Chairman Naveen Jain, who spoke on Thursday, says he's got that all figured out.
Jain's company both aggregates and integrates content from several partners and sells it back to some 1,500 Web sites, including the Web's major portals. Thanks to InfoSpace's proprietary Web server and database technologies, Jain says InfoSpace can dynamically serve any content and reform it to fit any device.
So, if you're looking to find a Ford repair shop in your town that's not too far from a comedy club, InfoSpace will serve up the info, with all the relevant ads, no matter if you're surfing the Web from a iMac or a pocket phone.
The trend toward outsourcing is why Jain's content business is becoming so successful, he says. By outsourcing valuable, private-labeled content, Jain says InfoSpace is helping portals build loyalty on their sites.
More impressive, however, than Jain's content plans is his candor when addressing the bare-boned truth about the how popular thin clients and portable information devices will be. "We don't really know which device will be dominate in the future, so we just bet on all of them," he says.
Between industry buzz and consumer reality, Jain's bet may be the safest one until the shift from PCs to other things sorts itself out a little more clearly.
Phil Harvey (pharvey@upside.com) writes for Upside Today.
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