Americans Indifferent to Networked Home Possibilities

More than half of "tech-savvy" consumers in the US say they are currently indifferent to the experience that a networked home might offer, according to an Accenture study.

Rather than connecting all the groups of devices throughout their homes, consumers are much more interested in the immediately realisable benefits of stand-alone devices, as well as greater interoperability between devices that perform related functions, especially in the home entertainment and home office areas. These are among the key findings of a survey of approximately 4,500 consumers conducted by Accenture to gauge consumers' values, attitudes and adoption of home electronics.

The study also suggests that companies must focus on increasing consumer value and enhancing interoperability among devices. Specifically, companies should focus on creating new applications within device clusters that address consumers' core values of ease of use, lifestyle fit performance and functionality, and low cost.

The study defines the "networked home" as a series of devices, like a PC or TV, and services, like Internet access or cable service, all in the home, that are linked together through a common network, either wired or wireless, and ubiquitously interact with each other. According to the survey, customer readiness lags behind the technology:

* 57% say they don't have and don't want a wired home network.
* 66% say they don't have and don't want a wireless home network.

More than half (57%) expect the introduction of many new electronic products they will want in the next two years, and 88 percent say it is important for new devices to connect easily with their existing home electronics.

'Although consumer optimism around new product introductions suggests that the environment may be ripe for the move toward a networked home, it's not going to happen overnight,' says Charles Roussel of Accenture's Electronics and High Tech group. 'Consumers are shying away from cost and technical complexity.'

According to the study, consumers are very dissatisfied with costs:

88% are dissatisfied with satellite and cable costs.
62% are dissatisfied with PC costs.
54% are dissatisfied with game console costs.
49% are dissatisfied with TV costs.

Contributing to consumers' indifference is that about 60% make home electronics purchasing decisions based on the best current value for their money. In other words, they are willing to pay for benefits they can enjoy immediately. They are not willing to pay for the value that a device may offer in the future.

'The real market opportunity over the next couple of years is to help consumers connect easily within groups of devices, before connecting across groups and throughout the home,' says David B. Rich of Accenture's Electronics and High Tech group.

Most consumers have many sophisticated electronics in their homes. They are generally satisfied with what they currently have, and see no compelling reason today to embrace the idea of the networked home.

92% have at least one PC.
58% have a scanner.
48% have a DVD player.
41% have a digital camera.
31% have a home theatre.
30% have a multifunction printer.

Accenture conducted an online consumer survey to explore preferences, values, attitudes and brand perceptions and identify obstacles to consumer adoption of home electronic devices and services today and in the future. The team distributed the e-mail survey to 40,000 online households in Spring 2002 and received almost 4,500 responses.

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