Home offices continue to represent a major opportunity for technology providers.

US

IDC: There are more than 33 million of these households in the U.S. and they typically are early technology adopters for many products compared with consumer households in general. The number of home office households will reach 37.7 million in 2009.

While the gap between consumer households and home office households continues to narrow when it comes to the acquisition of technology, there are still strong growth areas in the U.S. home office market. IT vendors should underscore both the capabilities and affordability of the latest technology.

• Shipments of PCs to home offices will far outnumber shipments of any other technology product.

• The installed base of portable PCs will be greater than that of desktop PCs by the end of 2009.

• Multifunction printer (MFP) shipments will represent roughly 80% of the number of printer shipments by the end of 2009.

• Despite the growth in home office use of LANs, only roughly one-third of PC-owning home offices will have LANs by 2009. Publ 20050601

U.S. Home Office 2005-2009 Forecast Publ 20050601