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Tom Schori DBA Millennium Marketing Research®, 808 Ironwood, Normal IL 61761, 309-532-8466

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Internet watch group examines future role of Internet Appliances.

By Thomas R. Schori, Ph.D., and Michael L. Garee, Principals,  Millennium Marketing Research, 808 E. Ironwood, Normal, IL 61761-5239. Tel. 309-532-8466 -

Editorial note: If you are a regular reader of these weekly columns you already know that we have an abiding, deep interest in the Internet, and the tremendous potential we believe it holds for reshaping not only the business/marketing landscape but the human landscape as well. As a result, from time to time we have run columns featuring news, opinions and observations about this exciting new medium. This week’s column merely represents the latest in that series.

The Internet will soon be moving off the personal computer. The real money on the ‘Net is going to be made not on the PC, but rather, on so-called "Internet Appliances." These are some of the major prognostications about the apparent future of the Internet being made by Hambrecht and Quist, an international investment banking company headquartered in San Francisco, CA, and specializing in high-tech companies.

The company’s Internet Research Group says it’s time to look past "traditional Internet companies" and identify companies that see the Internet moving off the PC.

"These companies plan to move their brands and move their services beyond the desktop," said Paul Noglows, an H&Q analyst.

According to H&Q, future Internet companies will gear their sites and services toward Internet Appliances, which include media already in widespread use, such as TV and radio, as well as those currently experiencing explosive growth, pagers, cellular phones and handheld personal organizers.

The company’s future vision of the Internet includes using two-way pages or PalmPilots to do such things as buy and sell stocks, or even hearing an advertisement for a concert on your car radio and being able to buy tickets with the mere press of a button. In other words, in the future, the Internet will allow users to get any information over any network onto virtually any device.

This future vision of the Internet is in stark contrast to previous predictions. Oracle CEO Larry Ellison, for example, not so very long ago predicted that the Internet would in effect become a "network computer," making the PC obsolete.

H&Q, however, stressed that it certainly isn’t making such sweeping claims for the Internet of the future, and the company doesn’t think the PC will be supplanted by Internet Appliances.

"We think in terms of PC-plus," said Managing Director Danny Rimer. "Or, an incremental use of such appliances to supplement the use of the PC."

However, H&Q pointed out, the same way in which the Internet has at least partially eliminated the need to drive to the mall, Internet Appliances will eliminate the need to be at your desk with the computer on in order to interact "on-line."

Delivery people for companies like FedEx and UPS are currently using hand-held computers that act very much like Internet Appliances. These devices are used to input delivery and pickup information as well as to collect digital signatures.

"You don’t have to call into your office, you don’t need a kiosk or a terminal," Rimer said. "You can conduct all of your business on the road. We expect to see a bunch of companies that come out and leverage this technology."

A number of companies are already well-positioned to profit handsomely from Internet Appliances, H&Q said. Inktomi Corp., for example, builds the network infrastructure that allows many portals, such as Yahoo!, Snap, Lycos/HotBot and others to find and get information. The group said Inktomi, which handled 1.8 billion search last quarter alone, could grow into the "microprocessor" of the Internet because of its advanced caching capabilities.

"You’re going to need to have some way to get the right information cached to the right appliance at the right time," Rimer said. "Essentially, Inktomi has been building that."

Regardless of what the Internet of the future will look like and be configured as, it seems a sure bet that it will become an even more integral part of our everyday lives. As we’ve pointed out in previous columns relating to the Internet, we think it is bound to become the most powerful, most pervasive, most influential two-way, interactive communication ever know to the human race. As developments continue at a rapid pace, nothing has happened to alter our thinking in this regard.