A Taxonomy of Internet Appliances

The world is evolving from one in which almost all access to the Internet comes from personalcomputers (PCs) to one in which so-called Internet appliances (IAs) will make up a greater shareof end-user equipment. Today's PC is a general-purpose, highly configurable and extensibledevice ? an "intelligent end-node" of the sort the Internet's designers had in mind. As such, itallows users much freedom of choice (such as which service provider to use, which Web sites tovisit, and which new software to download) in exchange for dealing with associated complexity.An IA is a device connected to the Internet, but beyond that there is little consensus onfunctionality and target markets. There is, however, general agreement that it reduces the levelof complexity seen by the user. A variety of approaches to reducing complexity are beingpursued. These fall on a spectrum from totally fixing the function of devices, to automating theconfiguration of more general purpose systems. In the middle are devices whose functionsappear more or less fixed to the user, but which retain some limited capability for upgradethrough their Internet connection.