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“The connected home” is a term used frequently but often defined ambiguously. Consumer electronics manufacturers, the PC industry, pay-television service providers and broadband providers are driving the development of the connected home, for obvious reasons, as the interplay of these elements expands the businesses for all these players.
Blockbuster and Samsung recently announced that Blockbuster OnDemand will be available on select connected HDTVs, Blu-ray players, and home theater systems starting in the fall of 2009. Samsung will offer connected Blu-ray players and home theater systems with both the Netflix and Blockbuster online services.
Two different types of media uses are propelling the vision for a connected consumer electronics home. These two concepts — media server and cloud media — increase the value of television as well as other devices by increasing the ability to discover, aggregate, access and display different types of media. They are two very different scenarios, differentiated mainly by where the content ultimately resides.
Broadband penetration has increased — over the past three years, the UK, Italy, Spain, Germany and France have added roughly 50 million new broadband households — and brought social media usage up along with it. Currently, almost 40 percent of broadband households in those countries use a social networking site at least monthly.
Social networking has left an indelible mark on consumers in terms of the way they connect and interact with each other. Sites such as Facebook are adding users at an incredible rate, and the online dating site Match.com reported good growth in the latter stages of 2008.
The competitive environment that characterizes today’s broadband and value-added services landscape benefits the growth of many digital lifestyle products and services. Consumers are also primary beneficiaries of increased competition among carriers. When multiple service providers are directly competing in an area, the results tend to be 1) lower prices; 2) additional value-added offerings, and 3) improved customer support.
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