| 11th May 2004 - Home networking entered
the mainstream in 2003 and early 2004, as large
numbers of broadband users installed home networks
to share Internet connections and electronics vendors
delivered new products to send high-value entertainment
content over the network. According to In-Stat/MDR,
the continued need for broadband sharing and a growing
interest in entertainment networking will drive
the total value of equipment with a home networking
connection of some type from $8.3 billion in 2004
to $17.1 billion by 2008. |
|
The emergence of media networking continues to be the
most exciting part of the home networking market. Many
vendors have announced or released media networking
products to connect entertainment devices to networks
in order to share audio and video content around the
home. We expect Microsoft's Media Center Extender technology
to accelerate this trend going forward into 2005.
In-Stat/MDR has also found that:
- Asia will eclipse North America for the region with
the most home networks by 2008, rising from 27% of
all home networks worldwide in 2004 to 36% in 2008,
with North America dropping from 46% to 34% in the
same time span.
- The wireless LAN market has evolved from being 802.11b
dominated to one where 802.11g and multi-band 802.11
represented nearly 50% of shipments in the fourth
quarter of 2003.
- New technologies such as MIMO and wireless 1394
will make WLAN technology an increasingly viable alternative
for multimedia networking.
- In-Stat/MDR's consumer surveys show retail storefronts
have become the dominant place for purchasing home
networks, while on-line shopping has declined in importance.
- Linksys was the leading vendor of media adapters
in 2003, while network disk vendor Ximeta led the
emerging market for consumer network storage.
In-Stat/MDR finds the entertainment content that people
consume will increasingly be delivered to the home over
a variety of broadcast and IP-based channels, then redistributed
over some form of network once in the home. Comcast's
recent announcement of their home network gateway initiative
and multi-room PVR efforts by Echostar and other service
providers show how the home network will be a central
delivery and content consumption platform in the future.
This Market Alert is drawn from the In-Stat/MDR report,
"Digital
Domicile 2004: Home Networking Hits the Big Time",
which contains extensive analysis using consumer survey
data, vendor profiles, and detailed forecasting. In
each market segment In-Stat/MDR examines the key players,
including ingredient technology vendors. Forecasts are
broken down by product segment, as well as LAN interface.
Included are market shares for home routers, residential
gateways, media adapters, networked cameras, home network
central storage, wireless LAN, HomePlug and HomePNA.
Also included are detailed forecasts of home routers,
residential gateways, media networking, LAN Interfaces
(WLAN, Ethernet, HomePlug, HomePNA, Coax/MoCA, 1394),
worldwide and regional home networks and home media
networks.
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