UltimateTV

MSN TV (formerly WebTV) is the name of both a thin client which uses a television for display (rather than a monitor), and the online service that supports it. more...

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The product and service were developed by WebTV Networks, Inc., a company purchased by Microsoft Corporation and absorbed into MSN (the Microsoft Network). While most thin clients developed in the mid-1990s were positioned as diskless workstations for corporate intranets, WebTV was positioned as a consumer device for web access.

The concept

As founder Steve Perlman was watching television one evening, he saw a commercial that ended by displaying the website address for the company; he often recalls this as a Campbell's Soup advertisement. He wondered exactly why Campbell's Soup would provide a web address for a television audience that (most likely) was neither interested in eating soup at the moment nor likely connected to the Internet at that precise moment.

It occurred to Perlman that if the television audience were enabled by a device to augment television viewing with receiving information or commercial offers through the television, then perhaps the web address could act as a signal and the television cable could be the conduit. Thus, the basic idea for WebTV was hatched: a combination of the Internet with television.

Early history

Founded by Perlman in 1995, WebTV Networks began life as Artemis Research. Perlman brought along co-founders Bruce Leak and Phil Goldman shortly after conceiving the basic concept.

Artemis Research hired many engineers and a few business development types early on, having about 30 employees by October 1995. Before incorporation, the company referred to itself as Artemis Research to disguise the nature of their business; they explained on their original website that they were doing research in sleep deprivation involving rabbits. The sleep deprived engineers found this funny; Phil Goldman's pet house rabbit Bowser (inspiration for the General Magic logo) was often found roaming the building as late into the night. However, many animal activists were not in on the joke and took offense to the website.

When the U.S. State Department limited the ability to export WebTV on the basis that the encryption required to visit secure websites was a non-exportable "munition" (despite the fact that the technology had originated outside the U.S. in the first place), they registered the munitions.com website, and set up a website offering implements of destruction. Bowser's name was lifted for the browser itself.

The launch

WebTV Networks, Inc was incorporated on June 30, 1995. Primary design criteria were ease of use and low cost.

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