Snicker at the notion of some poor homeowner facing the "Blue Screen of Death" and having to reboot the home three or four times a day just to unlock the doors. Worry about how the computer would interface with your Jacuzzi. Question all you like about who is going to provide the customer support in the middle of the night. But in the meantime, count on seeing more products that will utilize the power of the PC to control a variety of home systems. Because we're hearing from the consumer that they'd like PC-based solutions to provide for enhanced security, comfort, and cost savings. Home networking is about to get really exciting!

Since early 1998, many industries - computing, consumer electronics, semiconductor - and services - telecommunications, Internet, and energy utilities - have been keeping a keen eye on the development of home networking technology. Under the mantra of "no-new-wires," the "ABCs of home networking" now include groups with such names as HomePNA, HomeRF, Bluetooth, WECA, Home API, OSGi, and VESA. Their aim? To bring the power of the Internet into the home and allow all sorts of devices to communicate with each other.

As more home networking products have made their way into the retail market, the early indications are that sales are good. This is a time of optimism for the home networking industry, which seems to have been seeking a direction that would push it toward the mass market. Now that the initial seeds are being sown, now is the time to consider how to further the growth of home networks. Parks Associates' consumer research shows some strong potential for using the PC as a platform for more whole-house networking applications (control, HVAC, lighting, security, and entertainment).

Parks Associates' Consumer Research
In 1997, we asked consumers likely to move into a newly built home about things like central controllers. Although the results are not statistically quantifiable, they are nonetheless enlightening. For example, although 70% of participants indicated an 80% or better chance of installing wiring at the price of $2,500, only 22% indicated an 80% or better chance of adding a central controller at $10,000. The primary reasons given for this thinking were:

• It will be cheaper and better "next year";

• Don't be first, wait for the early adopters to work through the bugs; and

• It will be obsolete in five years…or less.

Our consumer survey - Electronic Living @ Home - backed these results in a quantifiable form. Asked to rank the idea of a central home automation control system from "very attractive" to "not at all attractive," only 19% of 1,500 respondents were very excited at the concept (Figure 1). On the other hand nearly one-half (49%) felt that a solution to allow a PC to control lighting, heating, and security systems in the home was "very attractive" (Figure 2).

Parks Associates has followed that consumer research with an in-depth study on consumers and home networks - the aptly titled Networks @ Home study has generated some interesting findings. Nearly one-half of respondents in multiple-PC households believe that using a PC to control lights, appliances, and security systems would be useful in their household. Furthermore, the consumer research indicates that consumer purchase intentions for such solutions is much higher than for simple peer-to-peer computer networks, even at an increased cost!

So what's the bottom line? The more that the participants identify their PC utilized as a central controller, the more likely they were to accept and want it; however, this very identification also led to lower price evaluations. The theme most articulated was that a good PC costs approximately $3,000; therefore, most participants didn't want to pay much more and certainly not more than double that price for the home controller. Ease of use also appears to be a deciding factor. Consumers don't want something that they perceive as making their lives more complicated. That's why the time is right for some PC-based solutions to successfully penetrate the marketplace.