MARKET RESEARCH (SPONSORED BY INTEL)

As discussed in the preface, the phone-line companies are concentrating most of their energies on homeowners who have mulitple PCs. Following is an overview of research work, sponsored by Intel and carried out by Market Strategies, Inc., into the trend across the world toward multiple-PC households.

There was a time when the idea of one television set per home was considered a luxury. Today, according to a December, 1997, Odyssey study, approximately 76% of all U.S. households have two or more televisions. It can be argued that the PC is following the same pattern. Consider three factors that contributed significantly to multiple TV-set ownership within the home:

• Purchase of a newer, bigger, better television

• Purchase of an additional television to reduce conflicts in the house over TV use

• Purchase of an additional television for use in a second or third room (kitchen, bedroom, etc.)

Replace the word "television" with "PC" in each of the above statements and they fit the multiple-PC phenomenon. After all, rapid advancements in PC technology result in "newer, bigger, and better" every holiday season. PCs undoubtedly take the potential for conflict one step further than television. Unlike TV viewing, which can be a multiperson experience, personal computer use is distinctively personal. In most cases, it is impossible for users to share.

During Intel-sponsored focus group research, one respondent lamented that, because his teenage daughter has replaced the telephone with the Internet for long distance communication with her boyfriend, he had to purchase another computer for his use. Finally, as PC use increases, more home users are likely to demand the convenience of accessing the computers'capabilities from the home office, the kitchen, the bedroom, or wherever they happen to be.

Today's Multiple-PC Home

What does today's multiple-PC home look like? Perhaps less "techy" than might be imagined. Notably, among the hundreds of two-PC household decision-makers that Intel interviewed, few consider themselves early adopters of technology. In fact, in focus group discussions, most indicated a modest level of PC knowledge. What they communicated was that they find the PC a useful, integral part of life—for more than one member of the household. Intel also learned the following about these consumers:

• 85% have two or more adult users in the home and 50% have at least one child user.

• The primary users are typically adults between the ages of 25 and 54.

• Multiple-PC homes don't appear to be a trend of only the highly affluent. Annual household income ranged widely from $20,000 to over $100,000, with the most prevalent income cluster being in the $20,000 to $70,000 range.

The only significant difference between these households and one-PC households is the tendency to be connected to the Internet. According to research Intel conducted in May of 1998, 86% of multiple-PC homes have Internet access, compared to 47% reported for single-PC homes in a January, 1998, Odyssey study. Notably, this access is used by nearly everyone in the home. Ninety-eight percent of adults and sixty-nine percent of children who use a PC in these households report being on the Internet at least once per month.

Getting the Most From Your PCs

If you buy a PC for everyone in the house, all PC-related conflicts are over, right? Well, maybe. In a number of Intel-sponsored focus group discussions across the United States, one issue was apparent: Home consumers don't consider the PC a stand-alone device any more than businesses do. To get the most value from their computers, home users need to be able to access PC resources (like printers and Internet access) from any PC they are working on. For most home consumers, multiple PCs in their homes only partially address their needs. To get full use of their PCs, these consumers have turned to a variety of methods. A very small percentage of U.S. multiple-PC homes have actually installed a traditional office network. Other consumers have purchased additional printers and/or Internet access accounts and phone lines for their additional PCs. Those who haven't made such purchases (the majority) are grudgingly living with makeshift solutions, like running floppy disks from the nonprinter-connected PC to the printer-connected PC, and simply waiting for the Internet-connected PC to be available before accessing their favorite Web site. While most felt they could live with such compromises, when presented with an easy home networking option, the majority indicated they would jump at the chance to take it.

But Few Are Networked Today

Nearly 18 million consumers have more than one PC in their home. At least half of these have indicated they would be very interested in a solution that would give them the major benefits of a home network. Why aren't multiple-PC consumers flocking to retailers for the currently existing network-in-a-box solutions? Two reasons:

First, consumers perceive a network as difficult to install and maintain. Intel's study showed that 50% of multiple-PC household decision-makers use a networked PC at work. Among those who don't use a Local Area Network (LAN), focus groups indicate that they are very familiar with someone who does. These people are not strangers to the idea of sharing data and PC resources on an office network. But familiarity has bred contempt. Throughout Intel's investigation of the multiple-PC home, few discussion topics were as lively or emotional as those surrounding consumers'impressions of office networking:

"The network is always going down."

"It takes a whole department to run the network."

"Networking is a hassle."

All of these are similar to the types of responses heard across the United States from consumers who have (or plan to have soon) at least two PCs in their homes—a fairly PC-literate group. Few argued the overall benefits of networking, but all perceived the cost of those benefits (in hassle and frustration) to be very high. Almost none felt compelled to pay that high a price to install a traditional network in their home.

The second reason multiple-PC owners aren't rushing to install home networks is practicality: Most don't want to drill holes in their walls to install network wiring. The option of stringing loose wire from room to room across the carpets or hardwood floors leaves something to be desired from an interior design standpoint.

Enter Telephone-Based Home Networking

Existing telephone wiring is an excellent medium for networking PCs within the home without adding new wires. The average multiple-PC household in the United States has four to five telephone jacks, and most are near existing PCs. Phone lines also provide a secure environment for data transmission.