In addition, it plans to offer Internet services such as e-mail and the Internet connection to WebTV customers. From a technology standpoint, WebTV Networks seems to have answered what consumers will want from a browsing box. Diba is taking a similar approach to WebTV Networks and has won its own set of supporters. Zenith Electronics, the U.S. TV maker, says its NetVision WebTV sets will feature Diba's technology. Farid Dibachi, chairman and co-founder of Diba, believes Internet access can be built into a wide range of different types of electronic devices.
Some analysts are enthusiastic about the market prospects for WebTVs.
Envisioneering Group, a market research firm, estimates that one million WebTVs will be sold in the first year of introduction and that by 2001 about one-third of the TVs in U.S. homes will have Web access capabilities. But the road to selling millions of WebTVs will not be a smooth one, and WebTV manufacturers will have to consider many factors. With Internet software changing every few months, WebTVs that cannot be upgraded easily will leave many customers dissatisfied. Manufacturers must therefore provide an Internet-based service that will perform this chore. Most people sit nine to 12 feet from a TV, making it difficult to read the text of a Web page unless it's enlarged, which means reformatting the page or endless scrolling to the right, and down, to view the entire page.