New Role for In-Home Networks

“By 2012, over 33 million U.S. households will have connections of 10 Mbps or more," says Parks Associates analyst Kurt Scherf. Broadband penetration exceeds 50 percent of homes.

And with household digital camera penetration at 67 percent, MP3 player penetration at 41 percent, PC penetration at 80 percent and mobile penetration at 87 percent, a new environment is being created where in-home and wide-area networks have new opportunities.

“No product is sold in isolation anymore,” Scherf says. “A device connects to a network, which brings content and applications to the consumer both in and outside the home."

Opportunity exists as well for technical support services for the digital home, which will be a $1 billion market by 2011,” Scherf forecasts.

As of 2007, 50 percent of U.S. Internet households were watching short video clips online, and 25 percent were downloading short video files. DVR household penetration reached over 40 percent of the U.S. online population in 2007, further increasing the place-shifting aspect of video consumption, Scherf notes.