Viewtron in Context (Score 1)

I worked on the Viewtron project. When Viewtron was conceived and development started several years before the official launch in 1983, the PCs of the day were still confined to technical hobbyists and mostly had text-only displays. The Internet only existed for a select few in universities and government contractors. The World Wide Web had not yet been invented. Most computer communication was dialup at 300 bps or 1200 bps. Compuserve had a text-only service for geeks and AOL did not yet exist. There was no online service (news, shopping, banking, games, etc) for the general public. Viewtron, whatever its faults, was a huge leap forward for its time. I think it is another example an idea before its time like Leonardo da Vinci envisioning helicopters in the 1400's, or Alan Kay envisioning the Dynabook in 1968. Both great ideas, but the technology of the time was not up to realization of the ideas.