2008-04-25 Netpliance i-Opener main menu

The i-Opener was a low-cost

internet appliance An Internet appliance is a consumer device whose main function is easy access to Internet services such as WWW or e-mail. The term was popularized in the 1990s, when it somewhat overlapped in meaning with an information appliance, Internet comput ...

produced by Netpliance (now known as

TippingPoint TippingPoint, part of Trend Micro Security, is an American software company founded in 1999 with focus on network security products, particularly intrusion prevention systems for networks. History The company was founded in January 1999 under ...

) between 1999 and 2002. The hardware was sold as a

loss leader A loss leader (also leader) is a pricing strategy where a product is sold at a price below its market cost to stimulate other sales of more profitable goods or services. With this sales promotion/marketing strategy, a "leader" is any popular articl ...

for a monthly internet service. Because of the low cost of the hardware, it was popular with computer hobbyists, who modified it to run desktop PC software without the internet service.

History

Netpliance introduced the i-Opener in November 1999 at a $99 promotional price. It was designed to be an easy-to-use, low-cost internet appliance for first-time users of the

World Wide Web The World Wide Web (WWW), commonly known as the Web, is an information system enabling documents and other web resources to be accessed over the Internet. Documents and downloadable media are made available to the network through web se ...

. Access to the internet was limited to Netpliance's own service plan. The hardware was sold below cost as a loss leader, with the expectation that Netpliance would recoup the money lost in manufacturing costs via its service plan. Analysts estimated the cost of the hardware to be $300–$400, and Netpliance cited costs of $499. The price was planned to increase to $199 after the promotional period. Shortly after the device's introduction, an engineer discovered that it used commodity computer hardware. By modifying the hardware, he was able to load his own software onto the i-Opener, bypassing the need for the subscription service plan. Although this disrupted Netpliance's business model, Netpliance initially welcomed these users, assuming that most customers would not be willing to install custom parts. As demand among computer hobbyists grew, retail outlets reported shortages, and Netpliance attempted to prevent custom hardware or software from being installed on new stock. Netpliance instead directed people to their developer program. In April 2000, Netpliance canceled existing orders on its website if buyers refused to accept a $499

termination fee {{About, fees for breaking terms of agreements or long-term contracts, Interconnect fees in (telephone) networks, Termination rates An early termination fee is a charge levied when a party wants to break the term of an agreement or long-term contra ...

for the service plan. Buyers protested the change in the terms of sale, and Netpliance was fined $100,000 by the

Federal Trade Commission The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is an independent agency of the United States government whose principal mission is the enforcement of civil (non-criminal) antitrust law and the promotion of consumer protection. The FTC shares jurisdiction ov ...

in 2001. By July 2000, the price of the i-Opener had quadrupled to $400, and Netpliance left the internet device market in January 2002.

Specifications

The i-Opener had a 10", 800×600 LCD display with

stereo Stereophonic sound, or more commonly stereo, is a method of sound reproduction that recreates a multi-directional, 3-dimensional audible perspective. This is usually achieved by using two independent audio channels through a configuration ...

speakers Speaker may refer to: Society and politics * Speaker (politics), the presiding officer in a legislative assembly * Public speaker, one who gives a speech or lecture * A person producing speech: the producer of a given utterance, especially: ** In ...

, a 180 MHz IDT WinChip C6

Socket 7 Socket 7 is a physical and electrical specification for an x86-style CPU socket on a personal computer motherboard. It was released in June 1995. The socket supersedes the earlier Socket 5, and accepts P5 Pentium microprocessors manufactured by ...

CPU, a single

SO-DIMM A DIMM () (Dual In-line Memory Module), commonly called a RAM stick, comprises a series of dynamic random-access memory integrated circuits. These memory modules are mounted on a printed circuit board and designed for use in personal computers, ...

socket with a 32 MB module, and a 16 MB

SanDisk SanDisk is a brand for flash memory products, including memory cards and readers, USB flash drives, solid-state drives, and digital audio players, manufactured and marketed by Western Digital. The original company, SanDisk Corporation was acquire ...

flash module housing the

QNX QNX ( or ) is a commercial Unix-like real-time operating system, aimed primarily at the embedded systems market. QNX was one of the first commercially successful microkernel operating systems. The product was originally developed in the early ...

operating system. Connectivity was via single PS/2,

USB Universal Serial Bus (USB) is an industry standard that establishes specifications for cables, connectors and protocols for connection, communication and power supply (interfacing) between computers, peripherals and other computers. A broad ...

, a

parallel port In computing, a parallel port is a type of interface found on early computers (personal and otherwise) for connecting peripherals. The name refers to the way the data is sent; parallel ports send multiple bits of data at once ( parallel ...

for a printer, and a 56k modem.

References

{{reflist Information appliances Computer-related introductions in 1999

History

Specifications

See also

References