Nearly 2 weeks ago, I blogged about the Uses of Broadband, and commented that now that about half of US households have broadband, the issue to think about isn’t just high-speed connection, but what value-added services the broadband connection can use to increase our quality of life.
I believe we are on the cusp of seeing a huge convergence of technology, both in the hardware (cell phones, land phones, televisions, computers, iPods, iPAQs, PalmPilots, Blackberrys, DVD players, etc.) and the means of communicating with them (wires, wireless, cable, fiber optic lines, satellite dishes, infrared, AM/FM, Blue Tooth, Wi-Fi, WiMAX, etc.) to provide voice conversations, movies, television programming, music, data transmission, home control and security, Internet access, access to the world’s libraries, and many things we can only dream about today.
In their new forecast report, Parks Associates calls these new capabilities “digital living services.” They state that “recent investment and developments in such services as broadband access and television, including the shift to digital and IP delivery of communications and entertainment services, have given rise to a host of new digital living products and services.” In 5 years, they expect that more than 30 million households will have a network that bridges numerous products and extends the entertainment experience to multiple rooms in the home.
Over the next 5 years, they expect the following growth:
- broadband and communications to grow from $168 billion to $229B
- PC/CE digital media platforms to grow from $23B to $34B
- Home security to grow from $8B to $10B
- On-demand entertainment to grow from $3B to $10B
- Home controls to grow from $3B to $5B
I can’t believe how many of my friends and associates that are not that tech savy have placed wireless routers in their homes for their laptops, xboxes & etcetera. I think the above article has underestimated this growth.
The new xbox is really a Media Center PC, I’ve been following Apple news recently that says they are coming out with a Device (codename: iTV) that will Take Video/Photo/Audio content from your computer’s itunes and stream it to the TV seamlessly using a DVD Menu-like interface. This box will sit next to your DVD player, or Cable Box and communicate Wirelessly, or by ethernet to your PC. It’s Amazing. Apple and many other companys are selling and delivering Television Shows and Movies through their services.
I’m glad this distribution is increasing. I really wish that the internet service providers would jump in and work their pricing to make broadband more affordable.