Nintendo Wii gets browser and we get the benefits

news via infoworld

The announcement that the Nintendo Wii game machine which allows players to use a remote control device to play games on their TV will get the Opera browser is very big news.

If you've ever tried to access your email on a hotel tv which had built-in Internet access you know what a pain that can be. But with an easy to use remote, rather than a cordless keyboard, access becomes far more comfortable and natural, especially to gamers in whose hands the future of high tech rests.

The browser on Wii also puts yet another obstacle in the way of Microsoft's strategy to become the center of the universe in the family room.

Yes, you can browse the Web with Xbox if you are technical genius and can figure it out. But it takes a consumer electronics company like Nintendo to make it simple.

In the battle for dominance in the home, PC versus TV, or who controls the home entertainment center, this is yet another example of how the TV will reign supreme.

Apple had a better chance than Microsoft at dominance but at the end of the day I would put my money on the consumer electronics companies.

After all didn't Comdex, the giant computer show of yesteryear disappear while the Consumer Electronics show is bigger than ever.

Of course, the TV of the future will have processors built in, along with Wi-Fi and maybe a VoIP phone hanging off the side [I'm speaking figuratively here] with a video VoIP call displayed on the screen.

On the inside it won't look like your father's TV. But on the outside it will look just about the same.

And we won't call it, HD TV, or flat panel TV or a Computer TV, we will just call it TV.