Unfazed by the lack of success Sony and Philips/ Magnavox had in marketing an Internet-cruising TV set-top box, about a dozen other vendors are preparing a second wave of releases.

Dallas-based TV maker Curtis Mathes in May became the third vendor to launch a set-top at retail in the United States, its first in the uniView series. The company's uniView set-top (at a suggested retail price of $399) is on sale in three markets:South Florida, Dallas and Northern California. The company plans to expand distribution this summer.

A slew of announcements from vendors using a set-top design from Network Computer (NCI), a spinoff of Oracle and Netscape offshoot Navio, is expected to follow in coming weeks.

Oracle chairman and chief executive officer Larry Ellison announced last November that NCI signed up Funai Electric, Acorn Computer Group, Thomson Consumer Electronics, Akai Digital, Aranex, Proton Electric Industrial and Uniden to use the company's NC reference platform. In January, Zenith announced it would also use the NC platform for a set-top release.

While some of the companies (Funai, Aranex) are targeting the corporate market, Proton, Akai, Thomson, Acorn and Uniden are planning consumer set-top releases.

So far, most of those companies have missed targeted release dates.

Proton's Xavier set-top box was slated for shipment to retail in the first half of 1997 for a suggested retail price of $499. The company could not be reached for comment on a new release date.

At an April trade show in Japan, Akai demonstrated a box based on an ARM 7500 40MHz microprocessor. The company had announced that the device would be on sale in the United States for a $349 suggested retail price in the third quarter of 1997. Akai executives could not be reached for comment on the new release date.

Thomson had slated a spring release date for its $300 set-top box through subsidiary RCA. A Thomson spokesman said the company plans a release in a few weeks, but declined to give a date or a targeted price.

Uniden, Fort Worth, Texas, is preparing a wireless set-top box for release sometime this year. No price has been set.

Zenith recently showed a set-top box prototype to retailers, a company spokesman said. No release date has been set for the device, formerly known as NetVision, now known as the NCReceiver.

As NCI partners ready set-top releases, a number of independents are also gearing up for the U.S. market.

Taiwanese manufacturer Tatung plans to release two versions of its Internet PC later this summer, said Betty Sun, Tatung's vice president of marketing. The two devices, based on a 120MHz Cyrix Gx86 processor and equipped with a homegrown operating system (though it runs Windows 95 and Windows NT as well), will carry $899 and $799 suggested retail prices. The former will be equipped with a CD-ROM.

Boca Research, meanwhile, plans to release a box based on a hardware design by Coollogic, Dallas, with a $299 price point within the next six months, a spokeswoman said. Coollogic's design is based on AMD's Elan SC-400 processor.

EarthLink Network, Pasadena, Calif., plans to be the first ISP to offer a set-top box free with a service contract. The company will use a box designed by Diba, a Menlo Park, Calif., software developer.

Batra International plans a similar approach with its 100MHz 486-powered devices. The Markham, Ontario, company plans to offer the boxes free with a service contract currently priced at $29.95 a month.

Source: Computer Retail Week