Netpliance i-Opener Press and Investor Promotional Video (2000)

This video was originally released as a 240x160@15fps Real Video file, so please excuse the quality.

Netpliance released this upbeat video to the press and investors on 9/6/2000. At that time its stock had already tanked. The i-Opener was one of the first of many so called "internet appliances", a low cost terminal that could only access the internet. The business model was setup to sell the hardware at a loss ($99 in the case of the i-Opener) and recoup the production costs via ISP fees. This model worked great until some enterprising hackers figured out how to add a hard drive and turn the i-Opener into a fully functional $99 PC! In the end, limited internet terminals never caught on and the market for these "appliances" disappeared.

Oh, and haven't they been saying the PC is dead for the past 20 years? Enjoy this bit of dotcom irrational exuberance!

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• Netpliance
• i-Opener
• dotcom boom
• failed companies
• John McHale
• dead brands
• internet appliance

[vwestlife]

He was right that there would be a marketplace explosion of Internet connected devices -- but it came a decade later in handheld form, rather than as a stripped-down desktop PC on the kitchen counter.

There's also a video from 1983 in which Hewlett Packard predicted that after touch screens, voiced activated computers would be the next big thing. If only they had patented that, then HP would be getting royalty payments every time someone whips out their iPhone 4S and talks to Siri.