One-year-old WebTV Networks Inc, the company founded by three Apple Computer Inc alumni with a completely different model for exploiting the World Wide Web for the television-watching masses, (CI No 2,934), has won the backing of the most powerful European-Japanese axis, the informal but very long-standing alliance between Philips Electronics NV and Sony Corp. The pair may have nearly come to blows over the rival merits of MiniDisk and Digital Compact Cassette, but their ardent wooing of the same segment of the market simply left them partners in failure. To have loved and lost the same girl often makes for a strong bond, and the two have put their differences behind them and both are backing the Palo Alto company’s vision of low-cost – under $500 – devices for connecting television sets to the World Wide Web.Steve Perlman, president of WebTV networks, says Sony and Philips are already in pre-production for the boxes, which are built around a chip from Integrated Devices Technology Inc – using one of its MIPS R-series RISC cores, presumably. The device uses a 33.6Kbps modem. Access to the Internet will be only via the service to be offered by WebTV, and while the monthly subscription price has not yet been set, it will be co mpetitive with the other on-line services. Other supporters include Concentric Network Corp; Excite Inc; Headspace Inc; Progressive Networks Inc and SurfWatch Software Inc. The selling points are that the WebTV Network provides what is claimed to be an easy-to-use front end to the Internet, and that it presents any Web page with stunning clarity and without distracting flicker, so that the text is comfortably readable even from across a living room, thanks to patent-pending TVLens technology that eliminates interlace flicker without blurring, while it enhances the perceptual image quality. The custom browser presents Web content in a form that fits the television screen. RealAudio, MIDI music and MPEG 2 audio support are integrated into the system. It offers a 16m color palette, transparency so text and images appear translucent when superimposed on another image, and use of dissolves, wipes and cross-fades as transitions between images. It is run from a One Thumb Browsing universal remote control, and supports up to five users per household with each account protected by a personal identification number with personal Internet mail address; a keyboard will be optional. None of the three companies would comment on pri cing. WebTV is confident it can make money from the online service, called The WebTV Network, and said it expects to break even in 1997 and turn a profit the following year. Sony says its set top box will ship this fall. WebTV expects hardware firms to sell televisions with built-in Web capability before the end of the year.Sony said it is considering selling such configurations.
