Internet appliance

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A VTech Model 80-36447, a type of Internet Appliance. Note the button on the console that would link the user to the Yahoo! webportal. VTech Model 80-36447 Internet Appliance.jpg
A VTech Model 80-36447, a type of Internet Appliance. Note the button on the console that would link the user to the Yahoo! webportal.

An Internet appliance is a consumer device whose main function is easy access to Internet services such as WWW or e-mail. [1] The term was popularized in the 1990s, when it somewhat overlapped in meaning with an information appliance, Internet computer, network computer, or even thin client, [2] but now it has fallen out of general use.

Contents

Internet appliances were contrasted with any general purpose computer, but unlike personal computers, internet appliances were low cost and low margin products, usually using highly optimised low power silicon specifically built for internet use. Modern smart phones and tablet computers do approximately the same things, but are more powerful, more successful in the market, and generally not classified as Internet appliances.

History

Internet appliances were promoted by a variety of technology companies during the 1990s but, as the price of full-featured computers dropped, never met the market expectations. Jim Louderback would later describe the concept as one of the "eight biggest tech flops ever".

An Internet tablet is a type of a mobile Internet appliance. Examples include the Sony Airboard [3] and the Nokia Internet Tablet series (including the Nokia N900).

Early in the 21st century a new breed of household devices, such as Vonage Internet Phones, PenguinRadio's Internet radio, and IPTV boxes, began to use the broadband connections in PC-independent ways.

Notable devices

Current

Discontinued

See also

Related Research Articles

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">OMAP</span> Texas Instruments image/video processors

OMAP is a family of image/video processors that was developed by Texas Instruments. They are proprietary system on chips (SoCs) for portable and mobile multimedia applications. OMAP devices generally include a general-purpose ARM architecture processor core plus one or more specialized co-processors. Earlier OMAP variants commonly featured a variant of the Texas Instruments TMS320 series digital signal processor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nokia 770 Internet Tablet</span> Cell phone model

The Nokia 770 Internet Tablet is a wireless Internet appliance from Nokia, originally announced at the LinuxWorld Summit in New York City on 25 May 2005. It is designed for wireless Internet browsing and email functions and includes software such as Internet radio, an RSS news reader, ebook reader, image viewer and media players for selected types of media.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Maemo</span> Mobile operating system by Nokia

Maemo is a software platform originally developed by Nokia, now developed by the community, for smartphones and Internet tablets. The platform comprises both the Maemo operating system and SDK. Maemo played a key role in Nokia's strategy to compete with Apple and Android, but ultimately failed to surpass both companies.Maemo is mostly based on open-source code and has been developed by Maemo Devices within Nokia in collaboration with many open-source projects such as the Linux kernel, Debian, and GNOME. Maemo is based on Debian and draws much of its GUI, frameworks, and libraries from the GNOME project. It uses the Matchbox window manager and the GTK-based Hildon framework as its GUI and application framework.

Push email is an email system that provides an always-on capability, in which when new email arrives at the mail delivery agent (MDA), it is immediately, actively transferred (pushed) by the MDA to the mail user agent (MUA), also called the email client, so that the end-user can see incoming email immediately. This is in contrast with systems that check for new incoming mail every so often, on a schedule. Email clients include smartphones and, less strictly, IMAP personal computer mail applications.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tablet computer</span> Mobile computer with integrated display, circuitry and battery

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nokia N810</span> 2007 tablet computer from Nokia

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nokia N900</span> 2009 smartphone by Nokia

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Post-PC era</span> Market trend

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References

  1. Bergman, Eric (2000). Information Appliances and Beyond (Interactive Technologies). Morgan Kaufmann. pp. 50–70. ISBN   1-55860-600-9 . Retrieved 2008-05-06.
  2. Keen, Peter G. W.; Mougayar, Walid; Torregrossa, Tracy (1998). The business internet and intranets: a manager's guide to key terms and concepts. Boston, Mass: Harvard Business School Press. p. 122. ISBN   0-87584-840-0.
  3. Martyn Williams 02 November, 2010 Sony's ten biggest flops, Techworld.com.au