CD-ROM is for the birds – IBM Corp is entrusting its software to the birds – it has teamed with General Motors Corp’s Hughes Network Systems unit to deliver software and other information via satellite: the plan is to enable companies to transmit software via satellite, and to redefine the process of electronic software delivery – IBM said it expects to distribute up to 80 percent of software maintenance services via satellite by the end of next year; IBM’s Software Manufacturing unit will offer digital information delivery services to corporate customers, resellers, retailers and consumers based on Hughes’s DirecPC service, which the company also announced yesterday, one idea being to deliver software to duplicators in touch-screen interactive kiosks in retail stores; the Hughes system will deliver data direct to personal computers via a small satellite receiver at up to 12Mbps, reducing a typical wait for delivery of a large document on the Internet from an hour to 90 seconds; the DirecPC hardware package consists of a 24 Ku-band antenna and coaxial cable to connect it to a personal computer, plus a 16-bit AT adaptor board, and the kit is expected to sell for about $1,500 with basic subscriber service expected to be under $16 a month, but there will also be usage fees.
