When the company launches its beta release of the product in April, there will be six or eight prepopulated planets for users to download, each with a theme like sports, entertainment and finance. The company plans to keep adding additional icons and planets after the launch, including limited-edition objects and planets to promote new movies and games. You turn on your computer and maybe you have a study planet or a games planet. We have a product that can be next to anything, and it seemed a great way to get that connection over and over again with users at a very low cost. Joy Mountford, who formerly managed Apple Computer Inc.'s Human Interface Group, works as a consultant for the company.
Analysts say the company's idea is unusual.
It's about making the Web cool and personal. It seems like a lot hasn't been discovered yet. We'll probably find out more about it when we start using it regularly. After a year of first-class cruising on DSL, I got bumped back to steerage.