The MSN Companion was a small-scale personal computer terminal that was designed for easy access to MSN services on the Internet, such as Hotmail, while still being cheap and easy to use. They were intended for use by people with little knowledge of computers or technology, and many included several features aimed at the elderly or disabled, such as easier-to-read monitors. The device was designed by Microsoft.

History

While the MSN Companion was initially received with praise, it did not perform successfully in the market and Microsoft and MSN stopped providing support for Companions in October 2003.

Early Companions

The Vestel package included a 15-inch monitor (or a 10-inch LCD monitor) and a PS/2 keyboard with a touchpad. The device itself had 32MB (+16MB flash) of memory, a 200MHz Geode processor, two USB ports, a phone jack, and a parallel port.

The eMachines package was similar, offering a 17 or 19-inch monitor instead of an LCD one and an 'eBoard' keyboard and standalone mouse.

The Compaq MSN Companion shipped with an LCD screen and a wireless keyboard with a mouse built-in. Compaq machines had 32MB (+16MB flash) of memory, a 266MHz AMD processor, four USB ports, a phone jack, and a ethernet port for networking.

References