There is a balance to be struck in Multimedia between the cdrom and the Internet, a balance very similar to that which must be struck between the media of print and digital information generally: each must yield much ground to the other, although in each case there is room for both.

Heavy bets are being made now in the commercial and financial markets on the new "NC": the "Network Computer", or "Non - Computer" -- the limited - capacity "Internet box" terminal which will be produced this year by Oracle and perhaps by Apple and others for US$500 -- which may well be provided to the ultimate consumer free of charge by the BabyBells and others, as the Minitel was originally.

The technical capacities of the NC / Network Computer / Non - Computer and the Internet may not be enough yet to support Multimedia the way cdrom does. But technical capacity is not what drives a market: the ability to reach customers does -- the marketing. The Internet's new "general public" customers may settle more for the Multimedia of the Internet -- dictating the new standards -- if and to the extent that they are better - reached by the efforts of the much less expensive "Internet and the NC / Network Computer / Non Computer" marketing package, than they are by the comparatively now much more expensive "cdrom and personal computer" marketing package. So Multimedia, so far as it is linked to the cdrom, and the personal computer generally, both are in some trouble in the commercial and financial markets now.