Electronic Media  - Published: 09-16-96

Tech Companies See the Future and It's a Teleputer



By - Joe Fedele



A group of heavy-hitting tech companies has their eyes for your TV.  They want to change the 

way you watch, where you read your e-mail and how you shift from viewing TV shows to surfing 

the Net.



These visionaries want to be the architects of the "Teleputer", that hybrid of a TV set and a PC.



While more than 100 million households have TV set while only a third of them own computers. 

For a number of companies that gap is a gateway to a very profitable market and a way to grab a 

slice of the Internet pie.



He's what's in the works:



The Mitsubishi Consumer Electronics has unveiled plans to build an "Intelligent TV" that can 

browse the World Wide Web, send/receive e-mail and play video games.  The Mitsubishi game 

plan is to have TV sets outpace PC's as the main access ramp to the Internet for consumers.



Earlier this year Zenith Electronics Corp. announced that it had formed a partnership with Diba 

Inc. to market a 27 inch TV set with high speed modem and ethernet capabilities.  The proposed 

set will retail for $899.  But unlike Mitsubishi, Zenith believes that TV sets and computers will 

never become one single unit.



Not to be outdone, some PC makers are attempting to enter the market as well.



Computer giant Compaq has joined forces with Thomson Electronics to produce a hybrid PC and 

TV.  



Apple Computer and Oracle have bridged the computer-TV gap with the introduction of Pippin 

technology.  



Pippin is a Home Internet Device that plugs into the TV set and becomes a complete interactive 

and educational device.  It is expected to list at about $500. 



WebTV, a Palo Alto based startup company, plans to ship their "Internet Appliances" later this 

fall.  The $500 set-top boxes should come equipped with infrared handheld controllers and an 

optional infrared keyboard.  Coupled to a telephone line, WebTV expects its product to surf the 

Internet via remote control.



Other manufacturers such as Sony and Philips Consumer Electronics are taking the set-top box 

approach to staking their claim to raking in the ever growing share of Internet dollars.  

This approach seems to be the least expensive hit to the consumers' wallet with an estimated 

cost of less than $300 per unit.



Sony and Philips Consumer Electronics have already acknowledged that they will start selling 

products which utilize WebTV technology.



And, finally, video game entertainment companies like Sega and Nintendo have also shown a 

marked interest in combining their technologies with the Internet.  



It is clear that these companies and others see a future in a trend you Web surfers might have 

noticed at home:



PC-hooked adults watch an average of 23 percent less TV than most Americans.



Don't take my word for it.  Those figures are from a study by Bates USA Interactive Media & 

Research.  If my own hours behind the computer are any measure, that number is exceedingly 

low.