Netscape targets consumer devices >BY Chris Bucholtz, West Coast Bureau Chief

In a move that could help change the way carriers and Internet service providers reach their customers, Netscape has spun off a new company that will focus on developing Internet software for the consumer market.

While the parent company will continue to concentrate on creating business-to-business and intranet products, the new company, Navio Communications Inc., will focus on creating software to allow consumer devices-including telephones, televisions, set-top boxes, personal digital assistants and video game devices-to access the World Wide Web. The company is counting on telecommunications carriers to play a major role in the spread of this technology.

"We're in the middle of a telecommunications upheaval," said Jim Clark, chairman of both Netscape and Navio. "I believe that in five to 10 years, all communications will be accessible through a single channel, possibly the Internet. Right now, we have to get relationships going with the telcos and map a strategy to have the telecommunications companies become our OEMs and distributors."

Clark and Wei Yen, chief executive officer of Navio, outlined a vision for the Internet based not on the PC but on everyday devices that would enable people of all walks of life to use the Internet.

"We believe the Internet will grow into each individual's life in a big way," said Yen. "Today, the Internet is for the sophisticated, the gifted and the professional. Tomorrow, it will be for everybody."

Navio's goal is making Web sites accessible to devices such as display screen-equipped telephones and Internet-capable televisions, using technology to differentiate between client platforms and to adapt the presentation of data accordingly, Yen said.

Marc Andreessen, senior vice president of technology at Netscape, echoed a view shared by network computer booster Oracle Inc., suggesting that the software Navio developed would operate on devices that would be all but free to consumers.

"In the cellular phone industry, it's common for the carrier to subsidize the cost of the phone," he said. "Within the next 10 years, it may very well be the same situation, although I see it as being subsidized by a variety of things."

Though Andreessen admitted that access to higher-bandwidth sources would be necessary to fully realize the potential of the Web, the popularity of Internet-enabled devices "will cause the telcos to innovate a bit," he said. "We expect dramatic increases in the available bandwidth over the coming years."

The first products to hit the market will likely be Internet-capable game systems, Andreessen said. The most likely first application will be an automated Web-based directory service.

The announcement of the new company was accompanied by the revelation that Nintendo, Sega, Sony, NEC, IBM and Oracle are all working with Navio on consumer products.