Sony Launches EVilla (Not a Net Appliance)

Powered by a Geode GX1R processor and running the BeIA 1.0 operating system, the EVilla is distinguished from its appliance cousins mostly by its emphasis on one-button access to Internet entertainment content, primarily streaming audio and video. The device can automatically download news and e-mail; set it to retrieve information in the middle of the night, and you can access it offline in the morning without tying up a phone line.

It is scheduled to ship by the end of this month priced at $500 and requires a subscription to EVilla's dial-up Internet service (a branded form of EarthLink) at $22 monthly for unlimited access. The subscription supports up to four users with unique e-mail addresses and browser settings. The EVilla service can also be used to connect PCs and other devices when the EVilla is not online.

When Sony previewed the device at the Consumer Electronics Show in January, it didn't duck the Internet appliance tag. But since then, other vendors have been bailing out of the Internet appliance market. 3Com discontinued its Audrey device in March after six months on the market. Netpliance announced in November that it would stop selling its I-opener product. Virgin Entertainment Group's Webplayer lasted less than three months, and Gateway is "rethinking" its Net appliance strategy.

Sony seems to be counting on the power of its brand name in consumer electronics to carry the day where others have failed.

"Sony, the brand itself, offers consumers a certain credibility," says Rob Bartels, Sony Electronics general manager for product development, who is overseeing EVilla's launch.

Instead of a Second PC

"We're marketing it primarily to families that have an Internet traffic jam in the house," says Robert W. Simek, senior marketing manager for Sony Display Products.

The EVilla consists of a 31.5-pound box with a built-in 15-inch CRT set to an unusual portrait-mode 800 by 1024 resolution, plus a keyboard and mouse. Simek says the portrait-mode display is designed to minimize or eliminate scrolling on many popular Web sites, which typically are longer than they are wide. Overall, the device is shaped vaguely like a taller, skinnier iMac.

In addition to its built-in 56-kilobits-per-second modem, the EVilla has two Universal Serial Bus ports for peripherals such as printers and Zip drives. It provides an Ethernet port that will be activated for users who subscribe to broadband EVilla service when it is offered later this year, and it has a Memory Stick slot for use in viewing digital images or playing MP3s stored on the chewing-gum-stick-size media.

"Sony is all about consumer devices, but they're all about Sony consumer devices," says Milosz Skrzypczak, an analyst for market research company Yankee Group. "It's pure Sony, it looks nice, it feels nice ... but hands down, they lose when compared with PCs."

Sony expects the EVilla to do best in homes that already have a PC but want to give more family members easy Internet access.

"Why would they want to buy another PC--it's a hassle," Sony's Bartels says. "Having to download plug-ins, having to download content versus having content pushed to you ... Our research shows that people want a guided experience on the Internet."

However, households that already have existing Internet service accounts might be unlikely to give those up to switch to EarthLink, Skrzypczak suggests. Even if Sony doesn't dub EVilla a Net appliance, it faces a challenge marketing the device, he adds. "This particular segment hasn't done well," Skrzypczak says.

(George A. Chidi Jr. of the IDG News Service contributed to this report.)