Back in the early 1990s, Silicon Graphics founder Jim Clark came up with an idea. Clark believed that Windows PCs were the computing standard for business users but envisioned a new type of interactive, entertainment-centric device for consumers.

Ultimately, this concept evolved into something called “Interactive TV” or ITV for short. Silicon Graphics teamed with Time Warner on a pilot project in Orlando FL. In the meantime, other cable providers and IT system vendors like Microsoft and Sun jumped in.

For those of us who were in the industry back in the early 1990s, this was an exciting time, although a bit of a lost era given the Internet boom a few years later. That said, I lived through this time period and wouldn’t have even remembered the whole ITV gaga if it weren’t for a recent read of an old Michael Lewis book, “The New New Thing.”

So why am I talking about ITV and the 1990s? Because it seems to me that the Apple iPad may capture the essence of Jim Clark’s vision. You probably wouldn’t use an iPad to write your PhD dissertation, but you would certainly use it to surf the web, communicate with friends, watch videos, read books, play video games, etc. Heck, you don’t even need your TV anymore, you simply carry the iPad with you and voila, all the personal entertainment you need.

The 1990s version of ITV failed for several reasons. It was too expensive to deliver the compute horsepower necessary in a consumer form factor. Bandwidth to the home didn’t really exist (anyone remember ISDN and 14.4 modems?). Your friends and family called you on your home phone which was probably on your kitchen wall.

Most of these technical and cultural hurdles are now gone. Add 3G/4G and WiMax support to iPad and you’ve also conquered the mobility challenges as well. ITV to go, what a concept. Who needs CDs, DVD players, or Ethernet jacks anymore?

Like many futurists, Clark had the right vision but the wrong timing. Steve Jobs, however, may be in the right place at the right time to fulfill the ITV promise and drive a wedge between business and entertainment computing.

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Tags: iPad, ITV, Michael Lewis, Silicon Graphics