TeleCruz: EE Times ghost Article

Zenith to Unveil First Interactive TV-Web Browser Set

Zenith Electronics Corp. plans to push the convergence of television and computers to a new level, introducing the first U.S. set that lets viewers connect to the Internet as they watch TV.

The $600 set, which should hit the market by July, enables free Web surfing, online shopping and e-mail through a built-in dial-up modem. Other companies provide these services through set-top boxes, but they charge more than $22 a month.

“More people all the time interact through their computer while they’re watching television,” Zenith spokesman John Taylor said. “This is sort of a seamless, integrated experience for those who want to watch television and surf [the Web] at the same time.”

The set reflects the burgeoning interest in interactive TV among consumer-electronics companies, cable operators, satellite services and broadcasters. Consumers, however, have shown limited interest--Microsoft’s WebTV, the most popular interactive TV service, has attracted only about 1 million subscribers after four years of promotions and heavy subsidies.

Analyst Richard Doherty of the Envisioneering Group, a technology consulting company, said Zenith’s approach is “pretty compelling.”

“It will probably attract a lot of the people who either gave up on Web TV . . . or held off because of the high price to begin with,” Doherty said.

The fact that the Internet capabilities are built in to the Zenith set, and not contained in a separate box, should appeal to consumers irritated by the clutter in their living rooms, Doherty said.

Zenith has been trying to introduce an interactive TV for several years, but its efforts were hampered by problems among its former technology partners. It developed the new model with the help of privately held TeleCruz Technology Inc. of San Jose, which makes the equipment and software needed to connect to the Net and display Web pages on a TV.

The two companies are expected to announce the set today, with a formal unveiling at the Consumer Electronics Show in January.