Posted by lengthsman on 03/30/06 13:22

It came from an article in EETimes (I think) the main theme was about
the surprising uptake (but maybe not in hindsight) of 802.11 opening a
real opportunity for inter-device operation. USB options are bespoke
software and XP or USB mass storage and poor device control, but with a
larger market of 802.11 add web interface and mini server... This was
further supported by a study that reported that if you gave to groups
of people a task with poor instruction, one using a PC App interface
and the other a web interface, same task and options, the web interface
users where more likely to complete due to a higher confidence level.

If you already have a screen and 802.11, internet access is a zero cost
feature

Digital camera, http or ftp in to get your pictures (can you really
support all browsers?) zero cost addition, upload from the camera
straight to your web site or online or offline printer. Product and OS
compatibility? ALL. The flaw browser compatibility, hence the XHTML
strict & CSS2. All the product then has to state in the manual problem
page is: if the display is broken then is not a fault of this product.
A bit of marketing and the main line browsers will have to keep up or
fall by the wayside. The Internet is no longer just about HTTP it's
the first real generic access point, that's access to your work,
shops, local news, TV, radio, your camera, phone and home.

As normal it'll come down to market forces, just as if you remove
Home use & office (the MS product not office computer use in general)
Microsoft is losing a lot of ground to Linux especially Novell/SUSE
desktop and Redhat Enterprise and if the control panel of my printer,
camera, phone and PVR looks great in Opera but not IE which one do you
think the manufactures will recommend and friends and family tell you
to use.

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