Home PC Users Want Home Networking, Study Finds
Reuters
NEW YORK (Aug. 2) - More than 17 million U.S. households are interested in networking their personal computers, printers and other devices so allow household members can share information and Internet access, a study released Monday by researchers Yankee Group said.
About 37 percent of households with personal computers (PC), and 50 percent of households with more than one PC, liked the idea of linking information products -- though the concept is new and not many products are widely available to do so.
''While the market is still rather new and not well understood by consumers, these findings suggest there is pent-up demand for consumers to share applications such as high-speed Internet access, video and audio content, or a common home printer,'' said Boyd Peterson, vice president at the Yankee Group, the information technology research arm of Primark Corp..
Of 2,000 PC households in the United States that responded to the Yankee Group survey, 68 percent have more than one family member who uses the Internet, and report instances where more than one family member wants to get online at the same time.
Among other things, home networking would allow a household to share Internet access among several PCs, thereby allowing several family members to surf the Web simultaneously through a single connection.
''The key challenge for companies offering Home Networking solutions is to bring the right mix of product functionality to the right group of users,'' says Karuna Uppal, Yankee Group Home Networking senior analyst.
Other desired applications include: printer sharing, sharing of video and audio content, and multi-user gaming.
Mohnan, What I'm looking for from DELL is turnkey systems. The problem I have about GIGABUYS is that they leave it up to the customer to decide. DELL should be offering turnkey systems, say one large homeserver, and two to three PCs, one for Sally and Tom and one for the Mr. and or Mrs.. all networked tested, and ready to plug and play right out of the box, cables included of course. DELL should be the System Vendor for the Home-network buyer.
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Greg
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