SOME of the biggest names in the computer industry have announced plans for promoting the development of stripped down, low cost computers that could access the Internet and send electronic mail.

Oracle, the world's leading maker of database software, said it was forming a new company to promote so called network computers that would use the burgeoning Internet to challenge the dominance of the personal computer.

IBM said it had already launched six major pilot tests of network computer devices for business use and planned to unveil a family of the lower cost products later this year. IBM, Apple, Netscape Communications and Sun Microsystems said they would support the network computer by providing a common set of guidelines for hardware for the machines. Cirrus Logic said it would make the chip for the network computer.

Oracle chief executive Mr Larry Ellison, who has led the drive to produce an industry standard for networked computers, which he believes may be as pervasive one day as telephones, said he does not see these devices replacing PCs.

For almost a year, Mr Ellison has been strongly promoting the idea of a stripped down, cheaper computer that would allow people to surf the Internet's World Wide Web and handle e mail. Now it seems Mr Ellison's dream box is near to becoming real.

The devices are low cost, scaled down computers with a processor, a small amount of memory, no disk drive, a keyboard, a terminal and a modem. They are used to access the Internet and software applications available on the Internet.

If the device catches on, it could be a blow to software giant Microsoft, which supplies the operating system for 80 per cent of the world's personal computers. A stripped down network computer would not need a full blown operating system.

Some analysts, however, are sceptical that the network computers will catch on.