“If there is any doubt about their imminent arrival into
American homes, consider recent data from International Data
Corporation (IDC) that projects 18.5 million such appliances will
ship in the U.S. alone by 2001. That figure is more than the 15.7
million PCs that IDC predicts will be sold this year.”
“So what are the advantages to the consumer of an Internet
appliance over a PC? Simplicity and cost. The advantage for
e-tailers may be a legion of new online shoppers that will join the
somewhat limited army of consumers that are already
online….“
“Interestingly, these new appliances will use the Linux
operating system rather than an operating system from Microsoft.
Intel’s PCs have been closely linked with Microsoft operating
systems since the early 1980s.”