The Change Mariner

Intel to Invest $200 Million in Home Media Networking

New York Times:

For Intel Capital, the digital home represents the next major market opportunity. The fund has already invested in Bridgeco, a start-up designer of low-cost chips for linking home devices, and Entropic, which designs chips for home networking systems over standard coaxial cable. Another investment, Musicmatch, sells software for recording, organizing and playing music on digital devices.

Mr. Miner compared the state of the digital home electronics market today to that of the computer industry two decades ago, when the makers of monolithic mainframe computers began to give way to the upstart personal computer makers. Within a few years, an entire industry of new players had emerged.

Likewise, in digital consumer electronics, the industry is only now realizing that the necessary innovation may well come from nimble entrepreneurs rather than established corporations. "People are just now waking up to the realities," Mr. Miner said. "There have been entrenched players in consumer electronics so that people have been hesitant to jump in."

Mr. Baker of Gartner said that the problems of digital networking are likely to be solved by new companies that do not have a vested interest in one technology or another.