Re: Is WebTV a puppet in the standards war?

[Mitch Stone <mstone@vc.net>]

--- From a message sent by Eric M. Bennett on 11/7/98 7:29 AM ---

>A ZDNet article asks the question, "Is WebTV a puppet in the standards
>war?"  Before being bought by Microsoft, WebTV had indicated an interest in
>supporting Java and kept its support for Real Networks' streaming product
>up to date.  Now it has no interest in Java and has announced it will not
>support new technologies from Real.  More here:
>
>http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/news/0,4586,2161365,00.html

The WebTV acquisition was the camel's nose under the tent of digital TV 
and other future "converged" technologies. What Microsoft does with WebTV 
should be seen as a precursor to what form they envision these 
technologies taking. Which is to say, proprietary and wholly owned by 
Microsoft. Are we to understand that Ziff-Dav is just figuring this out 
now?

Mitch Stone
mstone@vc.net