Stand-alone Multimedia in the Private Household

Abstract

For almost two years now multimedia has been the key “buzzword” within the Communications, Media, Computing and Electronics industries. The discussion originally started with the announcements of the Clinton/Gore administration to actively support the creation of the “Information Superhighway” as well as industrial mergers such as the one between Viacom and Paramount. Today several possible developments are discussed under the umbrella of multimedia. Whereas corporate strategic planners and marketing specialists envision an enormous market potential for new products and services, social scientists paint the dark picture of “couch potatoes” and social isolation. In order to go beyond such superficial statements it is necessary to at least roughly define what multimedia or the multimedia-market is and which applications and technologies will presumably drive the market.