News

Unsightly Wires are Biggest Irritant in the Digital Home (21/6/2004)

New research announced today shows that most consumers would opt for more technology in their homes were it not for all the untidy wires that come with it. Britain's increasingly style-conscious public find the wires associated with the latest living room must-haves like plasma screen TV's, DVD players and PC's are unacceptable in their ideal living space. 51 percent of those polled would be willing to pay a price premium of at least 10 percent for wireless products.

Polling 280 members of the public, the survey, commissioned by leading home network manufacturer NETGEAR, also revealed that many UK consumers rely on big brand-name products to make their buying decisions. 55 percent ranked brand-name and value-for-money as the most important factors when buying any kind of technology for the home. A further 22 percent rated cutting-edge innovation as a key consideration, while only 13 percent felt that functionality was important. Ten percent felt that the productās looks were most important.

"With consumers increasingly investing in technology for their homes the number of wires they need to hide to make a home cinema or home PC acceptable has become a real challenge," comments Manda Rigby, NETGEARās managing director for UK and Ireland. "The results came as no surprise to us. We are seeing sales of our wireless range grow dramatically this year. Not only do wireless products now give excellent performance, but they also fit with the householders more demanding style requirements."

According to those polled, additional barriers to adopting more technology included the concern that more technology equals more things to go wrong and the spiralling cost of the products themselves, which accounted for 27 and 20 percent of the votes respectively.

Consumers were surveyed leaving the Habitat home furnishing store in Tottenham Court Road, London W1.

www.netgear.co.uk