IDC's Connected Home service guides companies to take advantage of the burgeoning market for connecting consumer digital devices, including personal computers, consumer electronics, and home management systems. The service follows the products, services, technologies, vendors, and end users in the networked and connected home market, providing forecasts, competitive analyses, demand-side surveys, and assessments of the market.

This service covers the following segments of the U.S. connected home market:

• Home networking and connectivity hardware and components
• Broadband service providers' home networking programs
• Networked digital consumer electronics
• Subscribership and revenue for home networking-related services
• Advanced home networking applications such as home automation, personal health and wellness, home monitoring, communications and voice over IP, and home control
• Consumer attitudes toward and usage of home networks
• Wireless personal area network technologies

Throughout the year, this service will address the following topics:

• Developments of technology and services, including wireless Ethernet, home automation protocols, and wireless connectivity technologies such as ultrawideband
• Evolution of business models and partnerships
• Consumer awareness, understanding, and adoption of and interest in home networking and connectivity equipment, applications, and services
• Control points and servers in the home

Our research addresses the following issues that are critical to your success:

• Which applications and devices will drive the connected home market, and how quickly?
• How can consumer electronics and PC manufacturers leverage networking technologies to marry devices with online services, driving sales of both?
• How will the growth in intensity of home networking usage compare with the growth in overall home networking adoption?
• What services around the connected home will consumers embrace, and what are the best methods of developing and delivering those services?
• What role will broadband service providers play in the connected home, and how will they push the market for home networking services?
• How will online consumer behavior change as the Internet invades the living room?

IDC's Connected Home service examines how companies are developing and delivering home networking products and services, and it analyzes the competitive positioning, financial viability, and overall strategic direction of leading home networking companies. Examples of companies tracked include:

2Wire, AMD, AT&T, Atheros, Belkin, Broadcom, Buffalo, Cisco, Comcast, Conexant, Cox Communications, Dell, D-Link, DS2, Ember, Entropic, Freescale Semiconductor, HP, Intel, Intellon, Matsushita/Panasonic, Microsoft, Motorola, Movielink, NDS, NETGEAR, Nokia, Philips, Pioneer, Qwest, Samsung, SBC Communications, Scientific Atlanta, Siemens, Sony, Sprint, STMicroelectronics, Texas Instruments, Time Warner, Toshiba, Verizon, Yahoo!, Zensys, and Zoran.

This service focuses on the following core research. In addition to the insight provided in this service, IDC may conduct additional research on specific topics, or emerging market segments, via research offerings that require additional IDC funding and client investment.

This semiannual study sizes and forecasts the number of home networking households worldwide as well as unit sales and dollar volumes for routers and gateways sold for home use. It forecasts adoption by region and, within each region, by various home networking technologies. The study particularly tracks the progress of wireless home networking technologies in each of the regions.

This series of studies forecasts and analyzes the market for network-embedded consumer devices in the audio, video, IP telephony, and gaming markets. These studies detail the drivers and inhibitors of connected consumer devices in each of the segments and forecast unit shipments and penetration rates. This series of studies will also include separate forecasts on consumer voice-over-IP devices, home servers, and consumer femtocell deployments.

This series of studies focuses on surveys of broadband subscribers, both home networking users and nonusers, about their attitudes toward connected home applications. Broadband subscribership is a key driver in home networking adoption and is a gateway toward adoption of home networking-related services such as streaming digital video and audio from computers or the Internet to home entertainment devices.

This study forecasts the adoption of home automation applications in the United States. The document looks at network-based home automation, monitoring, security, and control systems and forecasts unit sales and dollar volumes in each of those categories. The study also looks at the development of wireless home automation technologies, including ZigBee, Z-Wave, and Insteon.

IDC offers a complete market intelligence solution customized to meet your business requirements. The array of products and services available to you includes:

• The opportunity to have your specific questions answered through personal interaction with industry experts who cover the topics and markets in your service
• Around-the-clock access to our market intelligence on idc.com, IDC's personalized Web experience
• A view of the market's future with 12 months of continuous intelligence about its direction and the reasons behind it, along with actionable advice for taking advantage of existing and emerging opportunities
• Special client discount pricing on purchases of research from other services
• Complimentary admission to IDC's annual Directions conference, where you'll hear our latest forecasts and network with IDC analysts and other industry professionals
• Complimentary invitations to monthly executive telebriefings, interactive forums designed to provide you with insights about research and strategies directly from IDC analysts

To find out how our flexible packaging options can meet your specific business needs, please contact your IDC sales executive.

As a privately held company, IDC believes that our customers are our primary constituency. A large percentage of every revenue dollar is reinvested back into our products, including more analysts, more geographic coverage, and extensive primary research.

Our steady growth over the past 10-plus years reflects our commitment to investing in our customers.