The Bloor Perspective: 3Com's radio, Sun's Linux détente and B2C shopping basics

In their latest look at three of the week's key issues, Robin Bloor and his colleagues consider 3Com's radio channel, Sun's Linux pledge and some recent B2C lessons.

Last week saw the UK announcement by 3Com of the Kerbango Internet Radio, one of the first household internet appliances available. The radio comes with large tuning and volume control knobs that give it a deceptively retro feel but the digital display that sits between them gives away the fact that this is leading edge technology. For the traditionalists out there the radio allows tuning across the AM/FM wavebands and provides a clock/alarm function. As for the internet aspects of the unit, the first point to make is that it relies on broadband access so if you've not got cable or DSL you're going to miss out. Once connected to the internet though, the options are endless. Being a dedicated device it's easy to operate, according to the sales pitch, and it allows you to listen to radio stations all over the world. It also allows two-way data transfer so that users are able to vote in polls or buy concert tickets on line. Lastly it is possible to put the radio in the kitchen, bathroom or other locations where a normal PC cannot be accommodated. The radio will be available this year in the United States for $299 and is expected to be available in the UK next year with the price still to be set. How popular the device will be has yet to be seen and the price certainly puts it in the premium purchase bracket. The proposed advantages do not exactly merit killer application status. It is clearly in the early adopter category, so ease of use will probably not be a key consideration. The thought of access to global radio stations may be of interest for those living away from their country of origin but not everyone is going to be too excited at that prospect. What we're really looking at here is simply one of the first internet appliances for the home. We're getting a snapshot of 3Com's 'digital home' concept which incorporates voice and internet communication, audio and video streaming, and home controls including security and remote access provision. 3Com has a serious interest in the 'digital home' as there will be a heavy reliance on networking products. Just how long the 'digital home' will be in becoming reality is not clear but the popularity of the Kerbango Radio will certainly be an indicator of the public's interest in such a concept. *Sun and the Cobalt element* Scott McNealy has stated he expects Sun to become the number one Linux company. This follows the announcement of Sun's intention to acquire Linux appliance vendor Cobalt in a stock deal valued at around $2bn. Sun, thus far, has not been renowned for its support of the Linux operating system so this deal has come as a bit of a surprise. The first take on this is it's the appliance market that interests Sun. It has not really found its own way into this market and so it makes some sense for it to buy its way in rather than invest large amounts of money on a development programme that would get it to the same point several years later. The question that arises is whether Sun will adopt Cobalt's Linux approach as it stands today or whether it will take the opportunity to extend its existing technologies down to appliances. Opinion on this matter seems to be divided with some commentators believing that Sun will scrap Linux and AMD processor in favour of its own Solaris and UltraSparc products. Others take McNealy at his word - he says that Linux is the same as Unix - and believe that when he says Sun will be number one in Linux he is committing the company to long-term use of the technology. It is possible to read McNealy's comments negatively. His view that Linux and Unix are alike implies he believes they are interchangeable. At the same time he has said that in appliance technology nobody should care what technology is inside the box - a comment that could be interpreted as a desire to place Sun's existing technology into the appliance. The truth is that nobody knows what Sun will end up doing. Sun has bought its way into the appliance market and just happens to have acquired a Linux capability along the way. It intends to become number one in the short term simply by selling more appliances than anybody else. Beyond that, we cannot take a view. *B2C shopping woes* Last week the trading standards authority launched a drive to educate the public on how to shop online. It is spearheaded by the leaflet 'How to shop on the Internet - Better Safe than Sorry!', a bullet point FAQ on 'some of the pitfalls to be avoided when shopping on-line'. If you look at press coverage, you could be forgiven for wondering if there is actually any B2C (business-to-consumer) market left. Two weeks ago we saw boxman.com, the billboard-happy Swedish online CD outfit join the growing legions of dot-gones. Last week it was Urbanfetch that hit the rocks following the disintegration of a proposed merger with Kozmo.com, it's main rival. Urbanfetch is US-owned but had a London office with 100 staff. Their service delivered books, food and CDs and apparently achieved a profit, a fact we at Bloor can well believe, knowing a number of London offices that raved about its B2B service. You don't have to be Einstein to work out why a business that delivers a van load of one commodity to a single address is going to turn a profit faster than a business that spreads a van load of different commodities all over town. The most important asset to any B2C firm that relies on blokes in overalls and vans for the last mile is a logistical genius worthy of the Sydney Olympics - not whizzy code. Pure B2Cs are most likely to generate profit when they are selling binary goods that can be delivered through the web, or at least can fit through a letterbox. Tickets for aeroplanes, gigs, and digital goods of all kinds are game. Anything else requires a hefty bricks and mortar infrastructure and excellent CRM.