RE: slightly OT: The Future?

["Keith Doxey" <lists.diyha@xxxxxxx>]

The Italian whitegood manufacturer Merloni (or something like that - they make Ariston etc) already have kitchen appliances that are web enable but customers dont buy them, they rent them.

 

For things like washing machines there is a charge everytime it is used. The idea being, the more you use it, the more you pay. It detects its own faults and arranges repair to suit the customer.

 

for some people, the complete lack of hassle will be the thing that sells it to them (assuming they can afford it) After all, people still rent TV's and Videos even though it doesnt make economic sense to do so. 

 

There will be a market for that kind of service/product but the size of the market will depend heavily on the pricing structure. As you say, quite a lot is possible now, but even with the skills that we have to be able to integrate and configure equipment ourselves it isnt cheap.

 

Keith

www.diyha.co.uk
www.kat5.tv

-----Original Message-----
From: P Murgatroyd [mailto:paul@xxxxxxx]
Sent: 22 June 2002 23:38
To: ukha_d@xxxxxxxSubject: [ukha_d] slightly OT: The Future?

Hi All,

 

I hope no one minds if I ask this question, but a friend and myself have been having a late night beer fuelled discussion session!

 

We both have some dramatic views of the near future for the normal family home… the most interesting being this:

 

Central “server” connected to the internet via broadband, with a home network consisting solely of wireless lan equipment in PC’s, laptops and macs, also printers connected via WLAN… all this is possible now and very soon.  The bit where we get radical comes now…

 

People don’t pay upfront for this, they pay a monthly fee to the company providing the services (a bit like Sky?), but in return, the supplying company also manage the setup, updating software, hardware and adding new features or clients as requested/needed via software like PC Anywhere or some sort of remote connection via the broadband (XP remote desktop?)

 

By the this point, much beer had been consumed and we had blown our brains away having come up with this strange idea… but when I think about it, it seems sensible enough… does anyone have any comments that they would like to add?

 

Once again, hope I don’t offend anyone by posting this.

 

Many thanks

 

Paul

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