more on IBM and virtual reality - (was: Re: IBM to give birth to 'Second Life' business group)

Begin forwarded message:

From: Amy Wohl <[email protected]>
Date: December 19, 2006 6:59:52 AM JST
To: [email protected]
Subject: RE: IBM and virtual reality - (was: Re: [IP] IBM to give  
birth to 'Second Life' business group)

Dave,

It is provocative to think of IBM in the consumer virtual worlds  
business,
but I keep remembering that IBM is no longer in ANY consumer  
businesses, but
its own choice.  Unless they are planning to change that strategy, I  
would
think that this venture into the future is on another path.

Note that the IBM spokesman talks about "training, conferences and
Commerce," in the Shankland article, B2B notions, I think.

On Irving Wladawsky-Berger's own site, http://irvingwb.typepad.com/,  he
describes the Shankland interview and adds some comments of his own.   
Here
there are references to "societal" possibilities for IBM and virtual  
reality
-- the blog notes healthcare, training and education as possibilities.

Certainly IBM can always choose to go off in another direction -- $90
Billion companies have deep pockets and lots of choices.  But I think  
IBM's
venture into virtual reality is about placing itself in a leadership
position in what it thinks could be a new way of doing business.  Of  
course,
it is planning to learn about the opportunities as it tries out the new
technology and this may move them into more consumer-oriented markets.

Amy D. Wohl
Editor, Amy Wohl's Opinions and
President, Wohl Associates
40 Old Lancaster Road, #608
Merion Station, PA 19066
610-667-4842
[email protected]
www.wohl.com


-----Original Message-----
From: David Farber [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Monday, December 18, 2006 3:35 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: IBM and virtual reality - (was: Re: [IP] IBM to give birth to
'Second Life' business group)



Begin forwarded message:

From: Maris <[email protected]>
Date: December 18, 2006 11:12:09 PM JST
To: [email protected]
Subject: IBM and virtual reality - (was: Re: [IP] IBM to give birth
to 'Second Life' business group)

Hi Dave,

A very interesting development.  I believe that IBM can see a ways
into the
future here, and that they are using an early market position to
their advantage.

My thought is this: In the upcoming years IBM will see their
revolutionary Cell
processor chip in hundreds of millions of households around the world
via game
console systems from a variety of manufacturers.  The realism of
Second Life's
graphics is rather low at the moment, but IBM's chip can easily
overcome that.
Virtual realms as per Second Life also require very high bandwidth to
deliver
the experience to the end-user, but if we look around the world very
high-speed
broadband is becoming more available all the time.

So we have life-like real-time graphics rendering (via the Cell
chip), climbing
broadband Internet speeds (Japan?, Korea?), available on relatively
inexpensive
consumer devices, in a hundred million homes world-wide, within 3-4
years...

No wonder IBM thinks that virtual realms will take off in the future.

There are a few pieces that I do not know about, such as the human-
machine
interface technologies, but I suspect that if the Cell processor
lives up to
it's claims then processing real-time video input from a digital
camera will be
simple, and that will allow for the display of facial expressions and
body
language (consumer cameras are at 10 megapixels now, and new models
will focus
on video capture quality because that is primarily how the younger
generation
uses them; convenient, eh?)

At this rate an entire virtual industry could take off right under
our noses :)

Maris

David Farber wrote:
>
>
> Begin forwarded message:
>
> From: Dewayne Hendricks <[email protected]>
> Date: December 13, 2006 9:01:27 AM JST
> To: Dewayne-Net Technology List <[email protected]>
> Subject: [Dewayne-Net] IBM to give birth to 'Second Life' business
> group
> Reply-To: [email protected]
>
> IBM to give birth to 'Second Life' business group
>
> By Stephen Shankland
> <http://news.com.com/IBM+to+give+birth+to+Second+Life+business
> +group/2100-1014_3-6143175.html>
>
>
> Story last modified Tue Dec 12 15:39:57 PST 2006
> IBM will launch an official group in January to deal with Second Life
> and other virtual realms from which the company hopes to profit.
> Virtual reality and other visual interface work is the next project on
> IBM's plate, Irving Wladawsky-Berger said in an interview at CNET's
> Second Life offices. Wladawsky-Berger, vice president of technical
> strategy and innovation at IBM, led the company's response to earlier
> technologies that rewrote the rules of the computing industry, such as
> e-commerce and Linux.
> "I have been playing a strong role in helping us start our 3D Internet
> and virtual-world efforts. We are launching a new EBO in this area in
> January--that is, an emerging business opportunity--much like we did
> with Linux and the grid," Wladawsky-Berger said Tuesday. IBM believes
> the virtual realm has potential for training, conferences and
> commerce,
> he said.
> Second Life, an online community run by a company called Linden
> Labs, is
> an electronic universe where people's virtual representations, called
> avatars, can chat, fly, teleport, browse stores and purchase goods.
> IBM
> has one public island on Second Life, a site named after and mimicking
> its Almaden Research Center near San Jose, Calif., but the company
> plans
> to open up 12 more by Monday.
>
> Second Life, not unlike blogging, has become a new trend among
> technology companies hoping to show they're hip to the latest
> trends and
> that believe they might benefit from direct connections to potential
> customers. In recent months, IBM rivals Dell and Sun Microsystems have
> launched Second Life offices and held activities.
>
> [snip]
>
>
>
>
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