Digital home too expensive for most

High prices are stalling sales of digital home equipment, according to a newly published report from Accenture. 

A survey of 2,600 consumers in the UK, US, France, Germany and Japan revealed that 80 per cent of people cited cost as the principal reason why they would not buy into the technology. In the UK this figure rose to 86 per cent.

But overall demand is low anyway, with barely a third of those questioned expressing a strong interest in the technology for home entertainment.

The survey also made grim reading for media companies. On average 70 per cent of those polled wanted a single provider to handle all their programming. If the figure is representative this could lead to more mergers among digital entertainment industry players.

"Despite strong consumer desire for a single aggregator for converged or complete digital home packages, many companies in this space provide only a portion of the content or services that comprise the complete digital home," said Al Delattre, a partner in Accenture's Communications & High Tech practice.

"Stronger collaboration and partnerships among hardware, content and service companies is imperative in order to truly meet consumer needs."

UK consumers indicated that they would be happy to pay up to £27 a month for guaranteed data backup, and £35 a month for a system that would link them directly to their doctor.

Interactive Guide:
Find out what you need to digitise your home. See the interactive guide from our sister publication Active Home. 

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