Even a few years back, although the concept of wireless networking at home was not absent among the Indian users, no much priority was attached to it. However, the scenario has changed completely these days, owing to several developments in the IT field. Primarily, availability of Broadband Internet and fall in price of Laptops have given a big boost to the demand for such facility. And in 2008, it’s no longer a luxury but a real necessity.
Contextually, in 2004 IDC predicted that home network households would grow 25% to 111 million by 2008. Again in a report in 2007, the market research firm informed, “The nature of the development of home networking worldwide underscores the evolutionary, not revolutionary, consumer adoption of digital technologies. Consumers are moving into home networking applications at a gradual pace, with data networking applications still the primary purpose for adoption of home networking and multimedia networking applications growing in acceptance as the ecosystem of networked services and devices matures.”
Obviously, the growth of Wireless Home Networking in the whole world has been lagging the expected speed. But it’s not exactly because of less demand. So far one of the major factors was indecision – wired or wireless. People were so much used to see wires that it took time for them to rely on wireless, especially when the enticing opportunities like linking through telephone lines and power lines co-existed.
However, now the time has come, when considering the advantages of Wireless Home Networking, people all over the world, and especially in India, have been very keen on adopting this technology.
So far in India, the networking at home was mostly needed for file sharing, printer or peripheral sharing and internet data sharing, however, now the major causes incorporate multi-player gaming, entertainment and of course internet telephone service.
Already the Wireless Home Networking products are finding good demand in our country. Although, the need is mostly city-centric at present, it will shortly expand to all corners of the country. Resellers need to gear up to embrace the emerging opportunity.
[N.B. ChannelTimes has arranged an online Spotlight Chat with Atul Jain, country manager (India & SAARC), Netgear Technologies India Pvt Ltd., on 28.05.08 at 11 a.m. Interested resellers can log in online and get direct answers to their questions from him.]