Intel Corp. at this week’s Consumer Electronics Show said it will invest $200 million in companies developing technologies to drive the convergence of personal computer and consumer electronics devices on a wireless home network via The Intel Digital Home Fund. The Intel Capital-managed fund will invest in companies developing hardware, software, connectivity and supporting technologies to support a wireless home network.
Indeed, demand for wireless home networks is picking up, according to a new report from BWCS that predicts by 2007 more than 50 million homes in Europe, the United States and Asia will have installed Wi-Fi connections for wireless home networks.
According to the research firm, by the end of 2003, there were more than 100 million broadband connections worldwide, with residential connections making up 80 percent. For the same period, there were 5 million home-based wireless local area networks, mainly in the United States.
BWCS expects the penetration of WLANs in the home to grow globally to 23 percent of broadband homes by 2007. “We are now seeing major players, such as Microsoft, Intel, Cisco and others making concerted efforts to break into the market,” said Ian Cox, author of the report.
“More people want the ability to have their content available anytime, anywhere and on any device,” explained Louis Burns, Intel vice president and general manager of the Desktop Platforms Group. “They want to wirelessly transfer MP3 files from a PC in the den so they can listen to them on their stereo in the family room; they want to view digital photos on their big-screen TV, or to watch video content on handheld wireless devices. Intel will continue pursuing its vision of unifying computing and consumer electronics functions for the benefit of consumers.”
