October 4, 1996
The explosive popularity of the Internet offers vast potential for vendors to provide boundless content to consumers, delivering new forms of entertainment, communication, images, news, shopping, and education. There is a catch, however: according to data from IDC/LINK, nearly two out of every three U.S. households don't have a PC. Therefore, although companies are rushing to develop digital products and services, only one-third of the U.S. market is able to access them. The bottom line: a huge portion of the market has shunned the PC, which translates into a potential huge opportunity for other digital devices.
To reach this untapped market, a wide variety of companies are racing to create information appliances--low-cost devices that promise to combine Internet access and computing capability with the consumer friendliness of familiar household appliances such as the television, VCR, and telephone.
Does this mean we are about to junk our PCs and start navigating the Internet with bargain electronic boxes? That's the billions-of-dollars question that everyone -- from Silicon Valley startups to telecommunications giants -- is asking.
Recent research from International Data Corporation (IDC) suggests that, while the PC will retain its dominance into the next century, a substantial market will develop over the next five years for alternative devices to access the World Wide Web -- especially in emerging markets, as the Internet grows in popularity around the globe. By the year 2000, shipments of non-PC devices will make up approximately 20% of the total U.S. Internet access market, and slightly more of the worldwide total.
To help technology vendors develop the strategies necessary to win in the emerging information appliance era, IDC is announcing a major new research initiative to examine and quantify market opportunities. This study, Plugging In the Toaster: Is the Information Appliance the Next Wave of Computing? will primarily address the opportunities in the U.S. consumer market, uncovering answers to such key questions as:
-- What market segments will emerge? What products and configurations
will address these segments?
-- What will be the check-off features necessary for device success?
What functionality trade-offs will be necessary?
-- Which companies will prove most influential in shaping this new
industry?
-- How will information appliances be used by consumers and small
business?
-- What key future Internet-based applications will help drive market
acceptance of different devices?
-- What marketing and channel strategies will best be suited to this
market?
-- How will evolving broadband communications networks drive the
development of information appliances?
Plugging in the Toaster combines a program of extensive qualitative and quantitative research--including focus groups and telephone interviews at 1,000 consumer and business sites--with industry discussion and ongoing industry monitoring. Study sponsors will receive IDC's findings from this comprehensive research base in a variety of formats, including detailed reports, a regularly-published electronic newsletter, and on-site briefings.
For information on becoming a study sponsor, or to receive a research prospectus for Plugging In the Toaster: Is the Information Appliance the Next Wave of Computing?, contact Mike Ault at 508-935-4055.
About IDC
Headquartered in Framingham, Mass., International Data Corporation provides IT market research and consulting to more than 3,900 high-technology customers around the world. With a global network of 300 analysts in more than 40 countries, IDC is the industry's most comprehensive resource on worldwide IT markets, products, vendors, and geographies.
IDC/LINK, an IDC subsidiary, researches and analyzes the home computing market, leading-edge technologies in telecommunications and new media, and the convergence of computing and consumer electronics.
IDC's World Wide Web site (http://www.idcresearch.com) contains additional company information and recent news releases, and offers full-text searching of recent research.
IDC is owned by International Data Group (IDG), the world's leading IT media and research company.