Set-top box - future or fable?

With the advent of the PC in 1975, Bill Gates had a dream of seeing a computer not only in every office around the globe, but also in every home. It is 25 years later and the dream is en route, however the platform has changed, and the television set has taken on a whole new persona.

Development has started on Microsoft`s dotNET, which is a new platform for building integrated, service-oriented applications to meet the needs of Internet businesses, applications that gather information from, and interact with, a wide variety of sources, regardless of the platforms or languages in use. Thus dotNET allows products like PDA`s, home appliances and set-top boxes to enable the fulfilment of Gates` dream.

Mark Forbes, Xylo product manager at Siltek Distribution Dynamics, defines the set-top box as a complete multimedia computer system able to play DVDs, MP3`s, normal CDs as well as run traditional computer applications.

With the set-top box still seeking acceptance in the market, Forbes speculates that future operating systems for it are likely to include Windows Millennium Edition and Windows 2000, with Dr. DOS and Windows CE being the current favourites. He adds that it is not yet definite whether the likes of Linux are developing any software for these products. The set-top box has been welcomed especially for use in t-commerce, a.k.a. television commerce. This box enables e-commerce transactions through TV sets.

"The maturation of technology and global influx of capital into the interactive television (ITV) sector over the last two years created trials for the convergence of telecommunications, Internet and home entertainment services, which highlights the market of the set-top box," says Forbes.

Indeed, the development of this industry holds promise to create vast opportunities for a variety of companies, large and small, new and old alike. Most optimistic industry observers are projecting the explosive growth of t-commerce revenues after 2003 when first generation ITV services are expected to attain mass-market penetration. The European unit of Forester Research also released a report that said ITV will overtake the Internet as the primary e-commerce platform in Europe by 2005.

For technological reasons, the television set - as it sits in today`s family living room - is not quite ready to become the little store at the crossroads of e-commerce. "The set-top box will change an ordinary television into yet another platform for selling to consumers," suggests Forbes.

Although South Africa has not yet seen widespread availability of the product, nor great market demand, Forbes is convinced that this will change in the near future. "New technology always has a set time for adoption, it will be no different with the set-top box, but as with the Internet, once we realise its value there will be no turning back."