Unless you've been living in a remote cave for the last decade, you are probably aware that the World Wide Web is growing exponentially and becoming a marketing opportunity to die for.
The development of encryption methods means secure credit card transactions have become a reality and a vast amount of money is being lavished on the establishment of virtual shopping malls, newsagents, sex parlours and gambling casinos, all intended to prise open consumers' wallets.
But there is a problem: despite the blanket coverage, not everyone is prepared to shell out good money for the hardware to gain access to the wealth of information in cyberspace.
In the US, just over 35 per cent of homes have a PC and less than half of those users are online, i.e. connected to the Web, and the figures for Europe make even grimmer reading from a marketing perspective. The television, on the other hand, is everywhere. And it could be, that when the dense media fog lifts and the realisation dawns that we are not going to live in a totally wired, online world for some time to come, those with a vested interest will fall back on retro-technology as a crutch to help them through a troubled time. If the PC-phobic couch potatoes won't come to the Internet than the Internet must come to them. And it has. Last summer the US-based New Com Incorporated, the leading 56K fax-modem manufacturer in the US, latched on to the by-now familiar notion of relaying the Internet via the humble TV. New Com began shipping units in November, 1997, and, through their agents in this country, have recently begun marketing their slightly cheesy-named product here. Welcome to the Web Pal.
After some intensive research, Mr Steve Sladewski, the marketing executive with Direct Memory International (DMI), the Cork-based company charged with distributing the Web Pal in the UK and Ireland, found that most people interested in purchasing PCs claimed to be doing so to access the Net.
After consulting with retailers, he found that "only 25 per cent of the people who made inquiries actually bought PCs and the main reason was the cost involved". The Web Pal, retailing for £300, or slightly more then a games console, aims to remove that obstacle.
The TV-top box, not unlike a satellite decoder, comes with a remote control unit which has a touch sensitive pad in place of a mouse, and hot keys to enable easy access to its email software and bookmarked Web pages. An infra-red keyboard comes as an optional extra or, alternatively, a regular keyboard and mouse can be attached to the standardised ports at the back of the box.
"The whole idea was to make it a bit like a PC," explains Mr Sladewski.
The design has been described as "perhaps the least expensive Internet terminal yet developed", by the Microprocessor Report. DMI are brimful of confidence in the viability of the product. "We are projecting sales at 1000 units a month in the first year but it could easily be double that. . . We have been discussing the product's potential with one of Europe's largest retailers and, according to their figures, we could be selling millions of units in the future.
"We are also talking to the three major ISPs in this country regarding business opportunities presented by the new technology", Mr Sladewski says, while careful not to elaborate on what stage the negotiations are at or with whom.
"We have been selling the Web Pal to the public for two weeks now and we are attempting to jump into bed with an ISP on the basis that it would be mutually advantageous. I can't say whether anyone will get an exclusive contract for the product but our solicitors and the solicitors for the main ISPs are in the process of going through the fine print."
Fears about system obsolescence and the limited number of Web sites accessible with similar devices launched recently are limiting the popularity of TV-top Internet access devices, a number of recent market research surveys have found. According to the Managing Director of DMI, Stewart Matthews, the "open architecture" and the fact that it "has been specifically designed to cater for all upgrades" eliminates the problem of obsolescence.
Whether or not the "open architecture" is really that open is a moot point as the Web Pal can only run browser software developed specifically for it while audio and visual plug-ins also have to be compatible. The box comes with its own browser and New Com has set up a web site for free downloads and upgrades - www.newcominc.com and click on Technical Support.
The Web Pal system features an industry-standard expansion slot to allow the standard modem to be upgraded to faster speeds or to an ISDN or cable modem. It also has a printer port, fax capabilities and a zip drive capacity, mirroring even further its PC parent.
DMI, which had a turnover of £16 million last year, plans to use the Web Pal "as a gigantic springboard" into the market place. If it turns out to be as successful as they hope, it could act as a springboard not only for DMI but for opportunistic marketeers and the public at large who have yet to experience the joys of crashing browsers, illegal operations and lost hours waiting for pages to download. Welcome to the future.
Conor Pope is at: cpope@irish- times.com