A report shows the revenue derived from annual networking hardware shipments and from equipment that incorporates a home networking connection will increase significantly.

The report by research company, In-Stat, shows revenue will increase from US$9 billion in 2004 to over US$21 billion in 2009. What’s driving this is the push for higher speeds, lower prices and increasing network areas in the home is driving the market, the high-tech market research market firm says. However, In-stat believes the ‘highly-touted’ use of storage and streaming of multimedia files may take years to catch on with the mass consumer. The report Digital Domicile 2005: Wireless Overtakes Ethernet is focused on the US market; however there are no Australian statistics of this kind for the market in this country. Although In-Stat did find the installed base of home networks worldwide went from 24 million in 2003 to 37 million in 2004, a jump of 13 billion.
“Our research shows that there is growing interest among US consumers to use home networks to connect their increasing library of digital entertainment audio and video files with their traditional entertainment equipment,” says Joyce Putscher, In-Stat analyst. “As consumers become more comfortable and familiar with the idea of bridging their PCs with their traditional analog equipment, interest will pick up.”
The report also found WLAN has now surpassed Ethernet as the desired home network choice, and is now dominated by multi-band. Home networking equipment continues to drop in price and increasing functionality such as wireless and VoIP is being integrated. Silicon prices, higher volumes and competition have all contributed toward aggressive pricing.