Archive notice: This article was originally published on December 19, 2007. Links and embedded videos are preserved as part of the historical record.
For the study carried out by the Cisco Internet Business Solution Group (IBSG), users throughout Europe were surveyed. When choosing a suitable provider, however, Germans have so far been undecided. “Private households have invested extensively in network-capable terminal devices and are showing increased demand for networked
services via the Internet” says Michael Ganser, Vice President Cisco Europe and managing director of Cisco Germany. “We see a clear development here toward Internet Phase II, which is characterised by worldwide, Internet-based collaboration
.” “With the integration of such technologies into people’s daily lives and the changes associated with it, a high demand for ‘Connected Life’ services has arisen”.
Penetration with network-capable terminal devices More than 90 percent of households with a broadband connection have a PC and a mobile phone, and almost 90 percent have a digital camera. Germany is therefore still at the European average in terms of penetration with PCs and mobile phones. German users are lagging behind when it comes to mobile entertainment devices, however. One in three also has an MP3 player, but only around one fifth has a portable video playback device or a mobile games console. Among the content in demand, Germans named calendar functions, personal data and address books most frequently.
The greatest hurdles for “Connected Life” for German consumers are the expected complexity of installation and the associated time required. Security concerns also play a role for one in two. By contrast, German users are not committed when choosing their provider. The
broadband providers are ahead. But the largest proportion of respondents answered the question of which type of provider, broadband, mobile phone or cable provider, would be considered for “Connected Life” services by saying they did not know.
Well Networked at Home Of the broadband connections in Germany, 63 percent
are connected to a home network, two thirds of them in a wireless network. Broadband connectivity has already led to a mixing of leisure time and working life. Half of those surveyed now do at least parts of their work at home, 34 percent even several hours per week. There is still potential for networking on the move. More than half of those surveyed spend several hours per week running errands and one quarter commuting to work.
For the Cisco IBSG Connected Consumer Study, 300 broadband users each from England, France, Italy, Spain and Germany were surveyed via an online panel. The content of the survey was households’ willingness, expectations and barriers regarding a service with which they could network their digital data and media.
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