Internet Appliance

An Internet appliance is a product which accesses services on the Internet, such as the World Wide Web or Internet telephony. These include intelligent kitchen appliances, intelligent phones, PDAs, home networked computers and other devices connected to the Internet so people can access and operate home equipment from a distance. An additional example of an Internet Appliance would be a computer, that performs tasks that can be accessed and remotely controlled without using the computers operating system, from a distance, usually using the web browser as an interface. Computer servers that have this type of interface are commonly called server appliances. The idea behind Internet appliances is that they can be made cheaper than general-purpose computers and by being dedicated to a single function or series of functions are generally simpler to use. They constitute a specialized form of information appliance.

The first such appliances to be marketed successfully gave constant information on the weather or on the state of the stock market, by means of changes in colors or by using analog gauges.

Another type of Internet appliance is the Internet Tablet. The most famous (or infamous) examples of the Internet Tablet are the Sony Airboard, Nokia 770, and the recently unveiled Nokia N800

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".

However, a resurgence in Internet appliances may be underway in 2006-07. With the rise in home networking, a new breed of devices, such as Vonage Internet Phones, PenguinRadio's Internet Radio, and IPTV boxes are starting to use the broadband connections of users in non-PC dependent ways.

An example of a popular server appliance is the Cobalt Networks, Cobalt RaQ series of server appliances.

Walled gardens versus open standards

In an ideal world, any true information appliance would be able to communicate with any other information appliance using open standard protocols and technologies, regardless of the maker of the software or the hardware. The communications aspects and all user interface elements would be designed together so that a user could switch seamlessly from one information appliance to another.

Some vendors are attempting to create "walled gardens" of closed proprietary content for information appliances, leveraging existing proprietary technologies. However, with the exception of NTT DoCoMo's i-mode, these efforts have been less successful than predicted, due to the willingness of most vendors to work together within open standards frameworks, and the pre-existing widespread adoption of open standards such as GSM, IP, SMS and SMTP.


Related concepts

The idea of ubiquitous computing is related to the notion of information appliance because both take into account the need to design dedicated, interconnected devices from the ground up, by taking human factors as well as software and hardware issues into account. They differ on other matters such as the importance accorded to social aspects of computing.


Notable Internet appliances (currently in production)

* MSN TV
* Pepper Pad
* Nokia 770 Internet Tablet
* Nokia N800 Internet Tablet
* Sony Mylo


Notable Internet appliances (no longer in production)

* 3Com Audrey
* i-Opener
* Sony eVilla
* Virgin Webplayer
* The New Internet Computer Company's NIC[1]
* ePods
* Compaq iPAQ