More products than ever can connect to the Net
BERLIN - Across the consumer electronics industry, leading players are revamping their audio and video equipment for a future centered around the Internet, a world in which televisions, stereos, and computers - even dishwashers and refrigerators - can communicate with each other over a wireless home network.
Expanded lines of networked entertainment equipment will take center stage this week at the Internationale Funkausstellung in Berlin, the largest consumer electronics convention in Europe.
Sony plans to introduce plug-in adapters to enable some of its Bravia television sets to connect to the Internet wirelessly. Philips will demonstrate a line of stereo systems that can wirelessly tap into music stored on personal computers or laptops in other rooms.
Pioneer, Samsung, and Sharp will present flat-panel TVs that hook up to the Internet, some with wires, some without. Hewlett-Packard's MediaSmart LCD TV will wirelessly stream high-definition video.
The convergence of telecommunications, consumer electronics, and computing is bringing together a new set of competitors. Telecommunications operators, seeking to increase their revenue from data traffic, are actively promoting home Internet access that is both easier and more sophisticated.
One way is through so-called residential gateways, boxes that combine an Internet router with a modem and software than can wirelessly shuttle video and audio between devices in a home. France Telecom sold 6 million of its Livebox gateways through 2007, according to Parks Associates, a research firm in Dallas.
Major online businesses also view the living room as a potentially lucrative new location for their services, with consumers turning to their TVs instead of PCs to reach the Internet. Google and Yahoo have said they will jointly produce software to make it easier to display Internet content on TV screens.
But the development of wireless home networks will require a shift in consumer thinking.
"Consumers really aren't driving the trend toward networked devices, the device makers are," said Steve Wilson, an analyst at ABI Research in New York.
The truly networked wireless home is still a few years off, experts say. By the end of this year, 370 million homes worldwide will have broadband Internet, Parks Associates estimates. But only 5 percent will have residential media gateways.
The technology already exists to enable many home electronic devices, including kitchen appliances, to communicate over a wireless network, said Alon Ironi, chief executive of Siano, an Israeli company. The problem, Ironi said, is most devices are unable to communicate with other manufacturers' products.
Still, manufacturers clearly think the appeal of a new information age will be strong enough to win over consumers. 