The inevitable melding of home theatre systems and personal computers will create a new category of convenience and versatility
Convergence completely missed the boat when the concept took root in the consumer electronics (CE) market in the last decade.
In theory, it was great. The dream of a single multifunctional box that will act as a computer, a telephone, a home entertainment unit and everything else you ever think of, was an alluring concept that whetted consumers' appetite. It was to be the Aladdin's lamp of home entertainment systems-and the concept naturally caught on.
In practice, however, it was a flop. The concept was not alluring enough for people to put their money into untested technology and sloppy integration.
Nevertheless, new hardware was introduced to make good on the promises. Remember Gateway's Destination PC? And yes, how could you forget Microsoft's WebTV-a box that sat on top of your television, offering e-mail and Web browsing without requiring a separate computer. The concept never really took off except in some parts of North America and Europe.
Convergence failed because it was a concept that was pushed forward by the PC industry to carve a niche in the high returns CE market. That it failed, showed nothing about the fallibility of the idea. Rather, it revealed the unwillingness of a market to embrace a concept born and bred in the PC industry and served on a silver platter of unproven promises.