Chip Makers Back New Set-Tops
(10/02/98 3:10 p.m. ET)
By Todd Wasserman, Computer Retail Week
Hardware vendors and chip makers plan to target the
low end of the PC market with a new wave of
higher-functioning set-top boxes.
Unlike the [current] Internet-cruising boxes from Philips, Sony,
and Mitsubishi that work with Microsoft's WebTV
Networks, the second-generation boxes are being
marketed as scaled-down PCs with basic
word-processing programs and, in some cases, digital
versatile disc (DVD) capabilities.
Intel is pushing its StrongARM and older Pentium chips
toward the market. Intel marketing manager Gregg
Adkin said he expects devices in the $300 to $1,000
range to appear in stores over the next few months.
"There will be a range of different announcements and
platforms," he said. "We believe the WebTV model is a
closed network, and we'd like to have an open
standard."
On the low end, Adkin said he expects to see
proprietary real-time operating systems (RTOS), rather
than Windows platforms.
Intel's StrongARM chips power RTOS-equipped
set-top boxes in Asia from Acer and TriGem, among
others. Those boxes are marketed as entertainment
devices rather than low-end PCs, he said.
The only Intel-powered set-top in North America is the
WebSurfer, a 100-MHz DX4-powered box from the
Markham, Ontario company of the same name. That
box was released in November 1997 and sells at
Wal-Mart, Costco, and Computer City in Canada for
about $260.00, a spokesman said. WebSurfer includes
word-processing, e-mail, and Web surfing features, but
lacks a hard drive.
Cyrix, a division of National Semiconductor, is working
with several vendors planning set-top releases in the
$400 range before year's end, said Forrest Norrod,
senior director of mobile computing. "We have quite a
large thrust in that area," he said.
Norrod, however, is skeptical about how well a set-top
can provide a PC experience. "TV resolution makes it a
bit difficult to view traditional PC applications," he said.
IDT, which supplies chips to third-tier PC vendors in
the sub-$500 category, plans to power "sub-desktop"
releases in the first quarter of 1999.
"We very well expect to see [systems at] price points
even lower than $300 that may have a different
operating system," said Steve Eliscu, director of
strategic marketing for the company. He declined to
name an alternate operating system or participating
vendors.
New vendors looking for a niche in the sub-$500
category are also plotting set-top releases. Emachines,
a venture of monitor maker KDS and PC maker
Tri-Gem, plans a fourth quarter release of a $499
set-top based on a 266-MHz Pentium with MMX that
includes DVD, said an Emachines spokesman. The
product will ship with Windows 98, WordPerfect, a
keyboard, a mouse, and a joystick.
Boca Research plans to release BocaVision NC, a
sub-$500 set-top with DVD and word processing
before year's end, said Tom Elowson, director of
marketing, thin client computing. The product is based
on a 180-MHz Cyrix MediaGX and uses Network
Computer's Web-surfing platform.
So far, retailers report little consumer interest in the
boxes. "There could be a market for it, but it seems like
you're going back to the Commodore 64 days," said
Robert Rabinowitz, vice president of Tech Advanced
Computers, Pensacola, Fla. "For a few dollars more,
you can get a PC without having to tie up your TV."
The first wave of set-tops, spearheaded by Microsoft's
WebTV Networks, came out in 1996 and were
marketed as entertainment boxes that combined Web
surfing and TV. Although Thomson Consumer
Electronics had a short-lived Network
Computer-based release, WebTV boxes from Sony,
Philips, and Mitsubishi are the only major releases on
the market today.
WebTV Networks claims about 400,000 subscribers,
but has no plans to introduce a new model this year, a
spokeswoman said. WebTV eventually plans to base
the box on Windows CE.
Network Computer, which often echoed co-founder
and Oracle CEO Larry Ellison's claim that
hard-driveless, low-end computers would unseat PCs,
has shifted its position on set-tops. "We're not seeing
people running to stores and saying, 'I want
Web-surfing on my TV,' " a Network Computer
spokesman said.
Network Computer, backed by Oracle and Netscape
Communications, released a reference platform for a
set-top box last year. The spokesman said, despite the
Boca relationship, Network Computer has shifted its
focus to non-retail original equipment manufacturer
alliances with cable companies and ISPs.
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