Internet appliance

{{distinguish|information appliance|computer appliance}}

{{refimprove|date=September 2008}}

File:VTech Model 80-36447 Internet Appliance.jpg Model 80-36447, a type of Internet Appliance. Note the button on the console that would link the user to the Yahoo! webportal.]]

An Internet appliance is a consumer device whose main function is easy access to Internet services such as WWW or e-mail.{{Cite book | author=Bergman, Eric | title=Information Appliances and Beyond (Interactive Technologies) | year=2000 | publisher=Morgan Kaufmann | isbn=1-55860-600-9 | pages=50–70 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wtPlin2FNXMC | access-date=2008-05-06 }} The term was popularized in the 1990s, when it somewhat overlapped in meaning with an information appliance, desktop computer, network computer, or even thin client,{{Cite book |author1=Keen, Peter G. W. |author2=Mougayar, Walid |author3=Torregrossa, Tracy | title=The business internet and intranets: a manager's guide to key terms and concepts | date=1998 | publisher=Harvard Business School Press | location=Boston, Mass | isbn=0-87584-840-0 | pages=122 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BbWTzeLa4yoC }} but now it has fallen out of general use.

Internet appliances were contrasted with any general purpose computer, but unlike personal computers, internet appliances were low cost and low margin products, usually using highly optimised low power silicon specifically built for internet use. Modern smart phones and tablet computers do approximately the same things, but are more powerful, more successful in the market, and generally not classified as Internet appliances.