The home entertainment and business centre of the future is now looking almost certain to be structured around the personal computer than the television set, and Den Bosch, Netherlands-based Tulip Computers NV has much more ambitious plans to win a serious slice of the market than the UK subsidiary revealed in London earlier this month (CI No 2,689). The company said on Friday that it will soon announce an alliance with a consumer electronics company to launch an integrated television personal computer by early next year. The new set, likely to be introduced in the first quarter 1996, will offer computer services such as games, word processing and access to the Internet in an audiovisual environment, the company told Reuters, adding that set prices are expected to start at $1,600, rising to $2,250 at the top of the range. Wide-screen television will follow by mid-1997, enabling the machine to compete in the television replacement market. It’s vital we work with a partner who knows how to make hi-fi, televisions, and tubes in the sixteen by nine format, said Tulip’s international marketing manager Rob Spijkers, but declined to name possible partners – Philips Electronics NV may be a little too close to home, and too much of a competitor. The first models may look something like Compaq Computer Corp’s Presario, but the screens will be bigger – at least 17. Tulip hopes to sell 100,000 sets per year on the consumer market in the first phase. The TV-PC will have a cordless keybord but the interface will be simpler and partly speech-operated. The keyboard will stay – you must be able to type a letter on your TV, declared Spijkers. He also said Tulip would add portable computers in September, and would be signing an agreement with a Taiwanese manufacturer this week.
