August 28, 2009 - In general, TDG estimates that home network penetration in the U.S. is between 45% and 47% of the 70 million broadband households, meaning between 32 and 33 million U.S. households currently have a home network in use.
But what types of devices are consumers connecting to their home networks?
In Q1 2009, TDG queried adult broadband users with home networks (i.e., adults living in networked broadband households) as to which devices they regularly connect to their home networks. The results are found below.
As noted, laptop/notebook PCs have surpassed desktop PCs as the most frequently networked devices (82% versus 77% respectively), a product of the fact that (a) laptop/notebook sales have topped desktop sales, and (b) today's laptops/notebooks have embedded wireless networking support, making connection to a home network (wireless, of course) very easy to accomplish
Printers remain the highest-ranking function-specific platform regularly connected to home networks, being present in 60% of broadband-networked households.
Yes, game consoles may be cast as a single-function platform but we know better - increasingly networked game console are portals for Internet-to-TV video delivery.
Today close to 18% of networked-broadband households have their TV connected to their home network, up from 12% just a few years ago. TDG expects this number to jump significantly in the next few years, driven by the connection of ancillary platforms and new web-enabled TV purchases.
The message? As TDG long ago predicted, by 2010 the vast majority of entertainment-oriented CE platforms will include support for Internet connectivity. We were prescient in this regard. And as home networking becomes synonymous with broadband service, each new broadband subscriber means yet another networked home capable of connecting all sorts of CE devices.
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