+ - Why Didn't The Internet Take Off In 1983?-> 2
Submitted
by
jfruh
jfruh writes "An amazing pair of videos from the AT&T archives tout a service called Viewtron that brought much of what we expect from the modern Internet to customers' homes in 1983. Online news, banking services, restaurant reviews, shopping, e-mail — all were available on your TV set, controlled by a wireless infrared keyboard. The system had 15,000 customers in cities on the U.S. east coast, but was shut down after $50 million was spent on it. But why did it flop? Was the world just not ready for it?"
Link to Original Source
Link to Original Source
Top-down/bottom-up (Score:3)
Sounds like a top-down approach. The Internet succeeded from a bottom-up basis.
Re: (Score:1)
That is half the problem, I think: the other half is the prices, as explained TFA.
Gouging customers is something that's in AT&T's (and all other monopoly's) blood and they continue to do it to this day--it's just most of the gouging is in the details (a little fee here, a little fee there)...