ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, July 10, 1996 TAG: 9607100052
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B-6 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: NEW YORK
SOURCE: Associated Press
STARTUP FIRM WebTV has joined Sony and Philips Electronics to sell a low-cost remote control that accesses the Web from a TV.
After months of promises by big-name computer firms for a cheaper device to access the Internet, an unknown has jumped ahead with a computer for browsing the World Wide Web from a TV.
WebTV Networks Inc., a Silicon Valley startup firm that has stayed quiet amid the Internet hoopla, is emerging with two powerful partners.
Sony Electronics Inc. and Philips Consumer Electronics Co. today will announce plans to produce and sell machines in September based on WebTV's technology.
``We're very itchy to get this device on the market,'' said Jim Bonan, vice president of new business development at Sony's consumer products group. ``I believe it will be the most exciting thing in the consumer electronics market this fall.''
The price will be a few hundred dollars, well below the $500 price tag tossed about by some computer industry executives as a low-cost target.
``We view boxes that are in the $500 price range to be speciality products,'' said Steve Perlman, chief executive officer of WebTV Networks. ``WebTV has been designed to appeal to the broad market.''
A key reason it costs so much less is the machine is designed only to browse the Web and share electronic mail instead of all the other things a personal computer does. Its operating and browsing program is small and efficient and can be updated by the company when a user is on line.
For Web users accustomed to browsers with all the buttons and command lines, the product will seem free of clutter. Rather than a cursor arrow manipulated by a mouse or track ball, the WebTV machine is run by a simple remote control with arrow and scroll buttons. A wireless keyboard is optional.
``They figured out how to make a Web site look pretty decent on a TV screen, and they figured out how to use a remote control as an easy way to navigate,'' said David Coursey, editor of Coursey.Com, a technology industry newsletter in Redwood City, Calif. ``At a high level, they look pretty good. As you dig down, there are some limitations you have to deal with.''
The most important limit is that the machine's operating and browsing software are different from the Netscape and Microsoft programs that influence the Web.
Most people creating Web information try to take advantage of the features in those programs. For instance, the Java programming language has been used to put animation into Web pages that can be viewed with Netscape or Microsoft browsers. That won't work on WebTV's product.
But if WebTV's device takes off, producers of Web content will have to take its software into account just as they do Netscape's and Microsoft's.
The WebTV machine's remote control can work with any television, and it has a green button on the upper right corner for simple access to the Web. That connects a person to WebTV Network's Internet access service, which is actually managed through a series of local Internet providers around the country.
Analyst Josh Bernoff of Forrester Research in Cambridge, Mass., gives high marks to WebTV Network's product but doubts that many people will adopt it as their primary way to surf the Web. ``All of the innovation on the Internet is going into making it more appealing on personal computers,'' Bernoff said.
``They've taken the smartest approach to this business proposition that I've seen,'' said analyst Adam Schoenfeld of Jupiter Communications in New York. ``That being said, it's an unproven proposition. Fortunes have been lost attempting to push non-PC information appliances into households.''
LENGTH: Medium: 77 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: AP WebTV Networks, Inc. founders, from left, Steveby CNBPearlman, Phil Goldman and Bruce Leak have created a device to
access the Internet from a TV.|