Don't get blamed for letting the future pass you by: Catch the NC wave.(embedded systems, network computers)(Industry Trend or Event)

The PC is the dominant interface for today's Web surfers, but do the masses really need or want all that computing power? What about people who merely want to use e-mail, purchase goods and services, improve their education, or just be entertained via the Internet? Will they be willing and able to pay for unnecessary extras that are not required to accomplish these tasks?

The Internet is causing a paradigm shift from independent desktop computing toward a network-centric model that will employ everything from servers, personal computers, set-top boxes, wireless phones, and pagers, to an entire embedded market (smart cards, heat pumps, refrigerators, microwave ovens, …