The home networking market in Canada and the U.S. continues to grow at a rapid pace, according to a recent study from In-Stat research.
According to the North American Market for Home Network Support Services, survey, more than 1,000 Canadian and American participants, 83 per cent were broadband Internet users of home networking.
Joyce Putscher, principal analyst for the Converging Markets and Technologies Group Residential Connectivity (Home Networking, Digital Home) at In-Stat, was not surprised by the survey findings.
She said this percentage has largely increased just within the past year.
“For North America, the growth of the home networking market has increased to more than 30 per cent compared to last year,” Putscher said.
She credits this growth from drivers such as residential gateways and telephone companies.
As more North American households are now investing in computers and all that technology has to offer, Putscher is seeing a steady growth in the amount of home networking users across the board.
With the majority of survey respondents being broadband users, Putscher expects this number to increase over the years.
“The closer you get to saturation, the less time it takes for growth to flow,” Putscher said.
Putscher added that there was a time when only households with multiple computers were linked through a home network. Today, this trend is beginning to change.
“I’m seeing more households with one computer now having home networks,” Putscher said. “One of the main drivers behind this is because of the migration to residential gateways.”
What further helps this idea ring true is the increase in support services that are now being offered through telephone companies.
Putscher also says an overall improvement in equipment such as routers, also reflects the growing trend in the marketplace for home networking.
While Canada appears to be tech-savvy at first glance, when looked at more closely, Putscher begs to differ.
“From the survey respondents, most participants were from Ontario,” she said. “However, Alberta is the province with the smallest percentage of home networking users.”
Geography and demographics within the province was given as an explanation for this finding.
“Alberta is more rural,” Putscher said. “There seems to be less of a perceived need for computers and services in this province.”
Nevertheless, whatever the case may be, Putscher notes the awareness of technology and computing has now become fairly widespread.
“Home networking is in the mainstream in today’s world,” Putscher said. “And there always seems to be plenty of competition out there.”
