Parks Associates’ Foresee Rise in Collocated Home Networks

by News Editor
Published on Apr 22, 2003 12:00 AM



According to a press release from Parks Associates' latest report Broadband Access @ Home III, this segment, comprising more than one-third of the three million households likely to adopt home networking in the next 12 months, would, in most cases, require only a network adapter to make the transition to entertainment networking. The more formidable challenges to service providers and manufacturers are in the targeted marketing and distribution of such cross-platform solutions in order to promote and facilitate this adoption.

Michael Greeson, senior analyst and director of broadband research for Parks Associates says, ''Demand for home networking is ramping up, but there is much debate about if and when consumer electronics such as stereos and TVs will make their way into the home network. Although most of those likely to adopt home networks are interested in PC-centric applications such as sharing an Internet connection or sharing a printer, a significant number of these households are in a good position to network entertainment content from the PC to their entertainment system.''

Various providers and vendors are hoping that traditional entertainment equipment will gradually find its way into the networking mix, according to Broadband Access @ Home III. The report cites households with a PC and an entertainment system collocated, of which its inhabitants expressed a strong interest in home networking, as the likely first major segment to widely adopt solutions that network entertainment content.

Parks Associates’ latest consumer study, Broadband Access @ Home III, is said to be the largest long-form Internet survey conducted in the U.S. to date, with more than 10,500 Internet households participating. According to the press release the study includes surveys of 4,500 narrowband and 6,000 broadband households and offers statistically significant samples for most residential services, including digital cable, satellite TV, Internet, home networking, Internet telephony, home security, home management, and many others.

With more people getting collocated systems this could open up obvious new avenues for those involved with internet video. People who use the internet as a broadcast medium (internet television/streaming media) may be looking at more hits from those looking to make their computer their secondary source of entertainment.

Parks Associates is a market research and consulting firm that provides information and analysis to its clients on emerging residential, small office, and light commercial technologies. Founded in 1986, Parks Associates creates research capital for companies ranging from Fortune 500 to small start-ups through market reports, multiclient studies, consumer research, workshops, and custom-tailored client solutions. For more information go to www.parksassociates.com.