03 Dec £3 billion ‘connected home’ market predicted
Intellect (the trade association for UK technology companies), has issued a report claiming that the market for ‘connected home’ technology could rise to £3bn a year during the next few years. In its report ‘Connected Homes – a Reality’, the body claims that within five years home owners will demand domestic networks to control items such as energy expenditure, consume public services such as health and education as well as accessing entertainment and media through internet TVs, handheld computers and other devices.
The group urges that the UK’s technology sector and government should work together to make the vision a reality. It claims that standards, training and certification for providers and an overall increase in broadband speeds to at least a 6Mbit/s average will be required for such systems to be feasible.
Intellect’s head of internet and media Colin Batten declares that “the connected home has been talked about for some time, but it is now potentially the next big technology revolution. Most homes already have islands of technology, but the truly connected home will be more than just an aggregation of different services and devices. Everything will be linked through one network giving people access to exciting new services”.
To promote its vision, Intellect has announced the ‘Connected Home Forum’, a platform designed for the decision makers in UK technology companies to focus on the key issues facing these new technologies.