The Digital Home

The term digital home is on everyone’s lips and is frequently depicted as a visionary scenario of the future. However when you take a closer look, it is clear that concrete forms of the digital home already exist. At the heart of this is the networking of home appliances to each other and the Internet.

This integration can extend from entertainment and communications media (e.g. PCs, TVs and stereo systems) and household appliances (e.g. washing machines and refrigerators) all the way to building services and security technology (e.g. heating, roller blinds and alarm systems). In the area of consumer electronics in particular, the digital home is already a reality in some households.

Key Findings

• Around 42% of digital home experts estimate market growth for digital home solutions to be high or very high by the year 2015.
• More than 60% of experts estimate the growth prospects for integrated home entertainment networks to be high or very high and assume that the home entertainment market in 2015 will make up around 50% of the digital home market.
• With the networking of various components in the home, experts say the networking of consumer electronics and the networking of home automation via a central control system are of greatest importance.
• In the experts’ opinion, the compatibility of hardware and software as well as the intuitive operation of applications (usability) are key success factors for the digital home.