Skip to main content

Home Net Users Need Simplicity, by Design

Consumers are moving beyond basic PC-to-PC digital home networks as they look to connect new devices to their network -- to access and share the growing array of digital content from the Internet, as well as from their own digital media devices.

While just a few years ago most consumer networks had only PCs on them, the growth in non-PC devices on the network has been significant. In a survey of online households in the United States, ABI Research has found that over 26 percent had a game console connected to their home network, 10 percent had a network storage device, and another 8 percent had some form of set-top box connected to their home network.

"The growth in non-PC devices on the home network continues as consumers look to access digital entertainment and community services being deployed over the Internet," says research director Mike Wolf.

"The growth in streaming music services such as Rhapsody, the positioning of popular video services such as YouTube for non-PC devices, and a host of other content-related services have created a surge in interest in going beyond the traditional PC-to-PC network."

The PC vendors are not sitting still, however. While the market for home theater PCs has been fairly moribund in the U.S., other countries have seen greater interest in living room PC form factors.

In Japan, PC-TV hybrids have garnered significant consumer interest for the living room, and in the United Kingdom, Media Center PCs with TV tuners as an alternative to Freeview set-top boxes have also seen consumer adoption.

"The push in the consumer electronics, PC, and set-top box markets to enable IP connectivity for premium, user-generated and personal content distribution has been significant and can only be expected to grow," adds Wolf.

"The challenge will be one of finding ways to bring together the pay-TV, IP and home content domains into an interface that is easy for consumers to navigate -- and to make management of these devices simple and easy to troubleshoot."

Naturally, I'm in total agreement with that statement. The window of opportunity is wide open, as common home networking oxymoron terms like "plug-and-play" and "easy-to-use" are plastered over the packing of these consumer electronics products. Home network users desperately need products that deliver true simplicity, by design.

Popular posts from this blog

Digital Talent Demand Exceeds Supply in Asia-Pac

Even the savviest CEO's desire for a digital transformation advantage has to face the global market reality -- there simply isn't enough skilled and experienced talent available to meet demand. According to the latest market study by IDC, around 60-80 percent of Asia-Pacific (AP) organizations find it "difficult" or "extremely difficult" to fill many IT roles -- including cybersecurity, software development, and data insight professionals. Major consequences of the skills shortage are increased workload on remaining digital business and IT employees, increased security risks, and loss of "hard-to-replace" critical transformation knowledge. Digital Business Talent Market Development Although big tech companies' layoffs are making headlines, they are not representative of the overall global marketplace. Ongoing difficulty to fill key practitioner vacancies is still among the top issues faced by leaders across industries. "Skills are difficul

Mobile Device Market Still Awaiting Recovery

The mobile devices market has experienced three years of unpredictable demand. The global pandemic, geopolitical pressures, supply chain issues, and macroeconomic headwinds have hindered the sector's consistent growth potential. This extremely challenging environment has dramatically affected both demand and supply chains. It has led to subsequent inflationary pressures, leading to a worsening global cost of living crisis suppressing growth and confidence in the sector. In tandem, mobile device industry stakeholders have become more cautious triggering market uncertainties. Mobile Device Market Development Operating under such a backdrop, the development of mobile device ecosystems and vendor landscapes have been impacted severely. Many of these market pressures persisted throughout 2022 and now into 2023, borne chiefly by the smartphone market. According to the latest worldwide market study by ABI Research, worldwide smartphone shipments in 2022 declined 9.6 percent Year-over-Year

Open Banking Usage to Grow by 470 Percent

The Open Banking business model has been advantageous for Third-Party Providers (TPPs), helping them to extend their offerings into other areas of financial services with new capabilities. Open Banking is also advantageous for traditional banking institutions, despite the perceived loss of custodianship over their data, by providing greater accessibility to more bank services. Furthermore, Open Banking can help serve Mobile Internet providers that are able to leverage it to create tailored services according to customers’ preferences and/or economic limitations. Open Banking Market Development Since traditional banking services are made more convenient by TPPs via greater data access, customers can proactively manage their finances and shape the development of new financial offerings. This is particularly noticeable in the realm of Digital Payments, where retail merchants and customers transact through eCommerce, which has the greatest number of use cases for Open Banking. These includ