By Dan Sweeney, Intel Home Networking Organization
There is a growing phenomenon in the home computing environment that Intel believes will dramatically alter the home of the future. It is the multiple-PC home. Based on 1998 Dataquest* research, Intel estimates that the number of multiple-PC homes by the end of 1998 will be approximately 18 million. This number represents about 37% of the 49 million U.S. homes with PCs (GRAPH 1). Dataquest estimates that in the year 2003, 28 million households will have at least two PCs. And, Forrester Research recently predicts that home networking will generate annual sales in excess of $1 billion by 2002 (GRAPH 2).
Intel believes that home networking will dramatically impact the way technology is used in the home. This paper explores the multiple-PC home trend, Intel's vision of the optimal features of a home networking solution, and the implications of home networking for today and the not-so-distant future.