Netscape Unit to Focus on Consumer Items
Firing the latest salvo in the overheated Internet browser war, Netscape Communications Corp. will announce today that it has formed a subsidiary to adapt its Internet software for a range of consumer appliances such as TVs, telephones and game machines.
“This will take Netscape technology into the consumer marketplace,” said Jim H. Clark, chairman and co-founder of Netscape. “There are hundreds of millions of consumer devices out there with potential Internet applications.”
Sony, Nintendo, NEC, Sega and IBM are all announcing their backing for the new company, called Navio. However, it is unclear if any of them will invest in it. Netscape also declined to comment on the level of its investment in the new venture.
Wei Yen, a former senior vice president at Silicon Graphics who has assumed the post of chief executive of Navio, said the company already has a staff of 50 working on the technology and that products will be available in the first half of 1997.
Instead of picking up a TV Guide, says Wei, a consumer of the future might use the TV to pull down information from the Net. Since such tasks don’t require much software, such a TV could be built much more cheaply than current TV-PC combinations that cost upward of $3,500.
“Our advantage is that we aren’t wedded to Windows,” Clark said.
Wei predicts there will be a plethora of devices for shopping on the Net and for listening to music or watching TV broadcasts over it.
“The Internet will be like electricity,” he said. “For the consumer it will look different from device to device.”
But analysts doubt such products will make much difference in the battle with Microsoft.
“The non-PC device represents a potentially huge market,” said Adam Schoenfeld, an analyst at New York market researcher Jupiter Communications. “But this is not a PC killer. The PC is the champion. It will remain the primary interactive appliance.”
Microsoft Vice President Brad Chase dismissed the Netscape announcement as “vacuous” and insisted consumer devices will never challenge the PC. Said Chase: “Go ask your Nintendo game machine to print your business plan or letter to Grandma.”
