The Coming Resurgence of Internet
Appliances
- Internet Appliance (IA)
- An inexpensive, minimally featured terminal for web access
One oft misquoted observation of the software world is that "80%
of users use just 20% of the features of a given software product".
The natural (flawed) extrapolation being that if a product
implements 20% of the features, it therefore satisfies 80% of the
market. In the software world such a design formula has been
frequently proven wrong. Instead, 80% of users use a common
15% of the features (in a word processor that would be the common
features like word justify, spell checking, font selection, etc),
but each of them draws upon a disparate 5% to complete their tasks.
In other words, whichever 20% of the features that you choose to
implement, you'll quickly find that many users will be frustrated
that their pet feature isn't to be found. Because of this fact
"light" versions of anything in the software/computer marketplace
have usually been met with very limited market success. I say this
having been one of those misguided software developers that oft had
the epiphany that what the world really needs is a nice
lightweight, non-bloated, core-featureset word processor!
(Usually right after wrestling with misbehaving cascading styles or
numbered lists in Microsoft Word), but thankfully I abandoned such
notions early on, accepting that though Word has a lot of features
I don't use, it also has some features that I consider critical but
others may consider unnecessary.
This paradox of requirements has resulted in the general market
failure of Internet Appliances: They achieve 75% of the features that
the average IA buyer wants, but that missing 25% is critical for
users who want to use an IA in place of a "real" computer, rather
than as a supplement to it. With some refocusing by IA vendors
this can change quickly: The prophetic words of Marc
Andreesons many moons ago (I believe in 1995) are coming true,
and the reality is that the web browser is becoming your
"operating system", at least as far as the user is concerned. The
back-end that's doing memory management, managing the
heap, moving bytes around, etc, is becoming a mere commodity
that a large number of operating systems do equally well (as far as
the user is concerned). The real action that people see is in the
web browser that they interact with for the majority of their work.
The Opera web browser is the
same whether it's on the Mac, Linux, BeOS, QNX or Windows:
It renders the various web standards in the
same way, leading to transparent transitions between the different
platforms. This paradigm holds true even one layer of abstraction higher
though, all the ways to HTML itself: If a user knows how to use
Hotmail or
Slashdot on one browser,
then they know how to use Hotmail
regardless of which web browser they use to interact with it. As
such, the more services that sites such as MSN (which now has full
contact and
schedule management, etc) offer users, the less the user needs
the features locally, rendering traditional applications such as
Outlook unnecessary for moment to moment basic information
appliance use.
So we know that the web is becoming the application for many
users, and that many users use their PCs for two simple things: web
browsing and sending and receiving email. Instantly those people
are catered to by an Internet Appliance because of sites such as
Hotmail or Yahoo Mail. So why haven't Internet Appliances taken
off? Well there are a lot of reasons: HTML wasn't complete leading
to interim widely used plug-in requirements, usually facilitating a
heavyweight browser with a plethora of additional software modules.
Additionally IAs were pushed as all encompassing replacements for
PCs, and in a marketplace that is still evolving it simply isn't
possible to hit a moving target like that with any measure of
success.
These are the things that I'm looking for in an Internet
Appliance:
- Non-gimmicky sales pitch
- The IA needs a straight-forward price with no tie-ins,
cross-promotions, or mandatory services.
- Instant On
- The Microsofts of the world would likely try putting Windows XP
on it with a hard drive and a "short" 7 second boot-up : That cannot
be for an IA product to succeed. The whole power of an Internet
Appliance is that it is a tool, and tools need to be available to
be used on a whim: If I've decided on a whim to go see a movie, I
want to be able to pull up
Tribute.ca in seconds to get the listing. If it's 7:58pm and 4
movies are starting at 8pm, then I will want to get to IMDB as quickly as possible to get the
ratings on them to help me make my choice. If I'm considering
shovelling the driveway I may want to jump to The Weather Network to
double check that another foot of snow isn't incoming. All of these
are spur of the moment, instantaneous information requests and I
want the information ASAP.
- Reliability
- If a tool doesn't work reliably, it quickly frustrates and gets
dumped in the trash heap. This is the general reason why game
platforms are purchased by people who already have powerful
computer systems: You know that you can stick in the DVD and the
game will work instantly without complaining that a system dll has
been overwritten or you need to update your DirectX, etc.
- Web Browsing Is Key
- If it can properly render HTML 4 with CSS 2 with Java support,
then it'll satisfy most people. The addition of media playback
should be on deluxe models and should not be forced on consumers
who don't want them (again no-gimmicks: Don't force
RealPlayer down our throats because Real gave you some money for
co-branding). If I had the previously mentioned capabilities then I
could successfully read online newspapers, participate in community
message boards. I could also send emails, do my banking, update my
schedule, or any of countless other web enabled applications
available for users.
- Zero Mechanical Noise
- This means no spinning hard drives, no floppy disks, and no
fans. Use low power chips and passive heat dissipation. I want this
thing unobtrusively sitting in the corner of my living room, and I
don't want it purring away with a fan that's bound to fail into a
grinding chunk of metal irritation a year down the road. Solid
state equals a better MTBF generally anyways so it's a win/win
situation.
- Networking Options
- A standard Ethernet connection (10Mbps is sufficient), with the
option of 802.11 wireless Ethernet, both of which should offer DHCP
or manual configuration. Indeed, I see no reason why it can't have
a "network expansion box" that accepts a special modem, Ethernet
card, or wireless transceiver alternately, allowing users to switch
in the future and not to have to buy extra hardware with their box
that they don't need (ex. I don't need a modem and I don't want to
pay for one just because it was built in an all in one box.
Additionally I don't want modem circuitry consuming
electricity/emitting heat just because 1 out of 4 consumers need a
modem).
- Integration with Existing Systems
- For deluxe (media integrated) models I'd like to be able to set
up `server' software on one of my full PCs (sharing a volume of
MP3s for my home network, for instance), allowing the IA to browse
and play back MP3s, etc. It'd also be nice, though not necessary,
if the IA could print to said server machine.
- Zero Maintenance
- Nothing should be configurable on the machine apart from
perhaps a user associated list of favourites, and the settings for
the network connection. Again, it's a tool not a hobby. To be a
tool it needs to provide a consistent platform for users. This also
means that there is very limited security risk because there is
very little to be compromised.
- LCD Display
- Two great features of an IA are space efficiency, and low power
consumption, and neither of these is true if you bundle it with a
traditional CRT. In any case, the reality is that LCDs cost less
than CRTs when produced in volume, so let's beat the chicken/egg
syndrome and get the LCD production ramped up.
- Easy Setup/Moving
- Perhaps the CPU should be built into the LCD box: I want to be
able to move it from place to place with one trip and requiring one
power plug, and if necessary the Ethernet cable (though secure
radio networking would be preferred).
- Make It A Computer Accessory Rather Than a Computer
Replacement
- Being a software developer I'll need a real PC for many years
to come, and indeed I'd say that this holds true for most people: a
real PC will be necessary for a slew of things from hunting down
MP3s to doing their taxes to writing resumes. This brings us back
to the first point, which is that limited functionality won't serve
most people's needs completely, which is something that IA makers
should acknowledge and accept rather than pathetically trying to
fight with half-products full of half-features (basically IA
devices that are becoming full PCs): Market these things as an
addition to home networks rather than a replacement for the PC.
Let's face it: The whole IA debate that has occurred up until now
has largely been political fighting between the Microsoft's, Suns,
Oracles, and Netscapes of the world, rather than a legitimate
evaluation of what customers actually want.
What would my perfect Internet Appliance be? I'd say a 16-bit
colour SVGA or XGA LCD screen, Java 1.3 capabilities, HTML 4 with
CSS2 rendering, compatibility with the major graphics formats (GIF,
PNG, JPG), maybe even with support for SVG for vector graphics, and
128-bit SSL/TLS: Everything else is just fluff (i.e. while nice,
Flash, RealPlayer, etc, are not necessary). Whatever software is
behind the scenes is totally irrelevant to me, whether it's a
custom Linux kernel running Mozilla, QNX Neutrino running Opera, or
Windows XP Embedded running IE 5: The net results to me will be the
same presuming it fulfills my stated needs, and that is the beauty
of the web platform. Hardware wise it'd be ideal if I could plug a
keyed (i.e. secure) wireless transceiver into an port on my 10/100 Ethernet switch
and instantly the box will have secure communications with my home
network.
Of course I've considered the option of setting up my own IA
device with a micro main box, perhaps with the QNX
realtime platform, the
Opera web browser, etc, but unfortunately without some
serious engineering work that solution would require me to
install a hard drive, which is something that I really would rather
not do, and to find a fanless solution usually requires delving
into the
industrial hardware arena which usually means much
higher prices than traditional for the consumer computer
market place. If anyone has any ideas for a board (fanless,
preferrably with onboard Ethernet), software, solid-state HD,
etc, please drop me a
line.