Netscape Communications Corp has created a Navio Communications Inc subsidiary to develop internet software for the consumer market – anything from cars to games consoles – aimed at non-PC users, but based on stripped-down versions of its Navigator web browser software. The aim is to go where the PC can’t and is not likely to go, said Netscape co founder Jim Clark, who is also chairman of both companies. And where the PC can’t and won’t go, Netscape’s obviously hoping Microsoft Corp can’t either and won’t try to follow. Navio has signed agreements with IBM Corp, Oracle Corp, Nintendo Co Ltd, Sony Corp, Sega Enterprises Ltd and NEC Corp. The last four are clearly masters at the consumer market place, while IBM and Oracle are not such obvious participants, other than that they were central to the NC Reference Profile effort (CI No 2,917). As to the type of products, details were sketchy, with Navio insisting it was just a company announcement. None of the partners was even present. Navio chief executive Wei Yen identified three areas in which the products – due sometime next year – will be used. The first is television-centric environments, such as game consoles, set-top boxes, and Digital Video Disk (DVD) systems. The second is communications devices, including Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs), cellular and other telephones. Yen said this category may subsume into one device before long. And lastly, the information terminal, by which Yen meant network computers, kiosks and other home appliances. He said the first batch of all three categories of products is likely to released around the same time next year. The Navio software will be based on Navigator technology and will run on devices with embedded, real-time operating systems or no operating systems at all, supporting all the standards that Navigator supports. Navio software will be modular and dynamically downloadable. Netscape is readying a modular version of Galileo (see other top story today), the next version of Navigator, version 4.0. The full version is due at the end of the year, with the modular version early next year. The Navio modular software is at least connected with the modular Navigator work, according to the company. In other words, if a specific Navigator module is already there, it won’t be re-written for Navio. The Navio browsers, as it’s still calling them, will reformat input for televisions and devices such as phones that only have space for a few lines of text. The Navigator team will provide the knowledge as far as Java, security and objects. The software will be extensible via plug-ins.
Internet will be as important as electricity
Clark chose his old Silicon Graphics Inc colleague Yen to be Navio president and chief executive. Yen left his post as SGI senior VP products and technologies in March this year. The make-up of the new company, based a few blocks down the street from Netscape in Sunnyvale, California, was not disclosed, other than that Netscape has a major equity position. Marc Andreessen, Netscape’s co-founder and chief technology officer reckons the market for the Navio software is at least 500 million users in five years time. If all the PCs – about 240 million at the moment – phones, consoles, pagers, cars, televisions and practically everything else that moves and everything that doesn’t are included, then that number is clearly conservative, and pretty meaningless. But Netscape is fast out of the blocks in signing up all the games console companies that matter, together with IBM and Oracle, as well as some others that it declined to talk about, even though deals are not thought to be exclusive. Yen claimed the the internet will be important as electricity to consumer devices in the next century, and Andreessen predicted an internet device on every desk and in every backpack, eventually. Andreessen said because of the extra advertising opportunities, the potential for giving consumer internet devices away for free was even greater than with cellular phones, which are already given away in many markets, and are also ideal internet devices. He wondered whether some sort of consumer internet access device might be bundled on the front of a magazine, or even come with a pizza box. As for the reason for a subsidiary, he likened the setting up of Navio to that of the Actra Business Systems LLC joint venture with GE Information Services unit of General Electric Co (CI No 2,890), in that Netscape will address opportunities with separate management teams, even though the technology might be shared. Navio is set up in such a way to have no impact on Netscape’s bottom line, according to Clark, which presumably means the parent will not split out the numbers. Clark said having his name at the top of the company usually meant a public offering at some point in the future, before adding that employees like to have that to look forward to. It remains to be seen whether this move will enable Netscape/Navio to create a large enough market on the non-PC front fast enough to balance the threat of Microsoft gobbling up it’s dominant, but declining PC browser market share. But, together with Netscape’s continuing good showing on the web server front, it might just be enough.
