News

IDC Believes U.S. Home Offices to Represent a Major Opportunity for Technology Vendors (3/6/2005)

Home offices continue to represent a major opportunity for technology providers. According to a new study from IDC, there are more than 33 million of these households in the U.S. and they typically are early technology adopters for many products compared with consumer households in general. IDC predicts that the number of home office households will reach 37.7 million in 2009.

"While the gap between consumer households and home office households continues to narrow when it comes to the acquisition of technology, there are still strong growth areas in the U.S. home office market," says Merle Sandler, senior research analyst, SMB and Home Office at IDC. "IT vendors should underscore both the capabilities and affordability of the latest technology."

Among noteworthy findings discussed in this study are the following:

* Shipments of PCs to home offices will far outnumber shipments of any other technology product.
* The installed base of portable PCs will be greater than that of desktop PCs by the end of 2009.
* Multifunction printer (MFP) shipments will represent roughly 80% of the number of printer shipments by the end of 2009.
* Despite the growth in home office use of LANs, only roughly one-third of PC-owning home offices will have LANs by 2009.

IDC's new study, U.S. Home Office 2005-2009 Forecast (IDC #33365) forecasts the ownership, annual shipments, and installed base of a number of products used by home office households through 2009. Products include PCs, printers, MFPs, LANs, and mobile phones.

www.idc.com