Home networking is too hard, and here’s the numbers to prove it
My column today in The Independent deals with the hell of home networking. (After my travails yesterday with AOL vs iChat - thanks for the advice, but I still haven’t had a chance to try it).
In the article I mention some numbers from MORI, which Hotwire PR provided. Well, here’s the analysis I did on those numbers, using the population statistics from the ONS.
It’s a bit perplexing at first, so here’s how it works. There’s a figure given for what percentage of people have broadband, a mobile phone, etc. What I did was to dig into the data that MORI, because it’s careful, had done, because it balances its survey to make sure that it’s representative of the population as a whole.
Interestingly, the age groups from 15-44 and 45-99 are almost equal. 44 is one of those interesting tipping ages where technology seems to run away from you.
I looked at what proportion in each age group had whichever technology, and compared that with the size of that age group in the overall population. This tells you how important or widespread a technology has become; or which languish, unusable.
What’s clear is that mobile phones and DVDs are broadly spread, though digital TV does better than DVDs in terms of age spread. But MP3 player ownership or desire, and home networking, are miles behind, and show significant age dropoffs - which to me says they’re too hard to do. (Or that older people have better things to do, but I think home networking is one of those things you may wish you could do at 44+ as your kids get older.)
Message to Microsoft and others seeking to do home networking: if it’s not three clicks and in, you’re history.
| Do you have broadband at home? | Do you have a mobile phone? | Have you, or will you, got an MP3 player? |
Do you have a DVD or DVD recorder? | Do you have digital TV? | Do you have a home network of one or more PCs etc? | ||
| Age group | % of population aged 15-99 | 35% of population | 83% | 19% | 68% | 56% | 12% |
| 15-24 | 15 | 20% of those saying yes are this age ( = +5 cf % of overall) | +3 | +15 | +8 | +1 | +10 |
| 25-34 | 17.5 | 22.5% (= +5) | +2 | +8 | +6 | +2 | +2 |
| 35-44 | 18.4 | 23.4% (= +5) | +2 | +3 | +2 | +4 | +7 |
| total 15-44 | 50.9 | 65% (= +15) | +7 | +26 | +16 | +7 | +19 |
| 45-54 | 16.2 | 19.2% (= +3) | +1 | -3 | -1 | +1 | +2 |
| 55-64 | 13 | 10% (= -3) | -1 | -8 | -4 | 0 | -4 |
| 65+ | 20 | 5% (= -15) | -8 | -17 | -12 | -8 | -18 |
| total 45-90+ | 49.2 | 34% (= -15) | -8 | -28 | -17 | -7 | -20 |
| total | 100 (rounded) | 0 | -1 | -2 | -1 | 0 | -1 |
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September 7th, 2005 at 2:57 pm
Great minds…last week’s net.wars talked about not so much teh horrors of home networking as the horrors of trying to network your TVs…
“Unconvergence”
http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=25897
wg
September 7th, 2005 at 4:34 pm
I hate to say it but having just read your coloum in the paper, I just HAVE to point out: THIS TAKES SECONDS AND IS EASY - AS - PIE ON THE Mac.
However I do have a suggestion/recomendation (that helps XP users at least). Now avalible for download is “Bonjour for Windows” this is basically the zero - config software that makes my Mac so easy, ported to the PC by Apple so they could impliment iTunes network music ’sharing’. Give it a go, it does file and printer sharing without too much trouble.
The wonders of a Mac, coming soon to a PC near you.
September 7th, 2005 at 5:25 pm
I just wanted to point out to you, that those people who are 44 and up graduated from college before the introduction of the personal computer. Just thought that was an interesting factoid.
September 7th, 2005 at 6:24 pm
To Damian,
I’d agree of course. But I would also point out that there are still troublesome areas. The routers themselves for instance are NOT simple. Sure, it may be simple to set up and get working, but making it secure is another kettle of fish. I went round to a PC user’s house who had set himself up nicely with a Netgear router, installed a pci card, and was working fine. But of course, he was exposed to the world as far as security was concerned.
Let’s face it, networking is not as easy as it should be, and it affects mac users too. The iChat issues Charles also referred to have affected a lot of mac users, and the fixes were often non-trivial. If you can’t explain it to your mum, it’s not going to be adopted by the mass market.
Ian
September 7th, 2005 at 11:23 pm
Well, I’m under 44 and my husband is over 44 so I pointed out to him that he was dead in the water in the digital age. He wasn’t all that pleased to hear this.
Home networking is As Easy As Pie with Macs, as another correspondent sets out above. In fact, I just wish I’d realised about Macs early enough to persuade my parents and inlaws onto them, because I think I’d be doing a whole pile less unpaid tech support now if I had.
Home networking though, is a bit like broadband or iPods; until you’ve got it, it’s hard to see what the point would be.
September 8th, 2005 at 8:18 am
If you haven’t got a Mac, maybe you can use an Airport Express base station. We share a printer and hifi between a Mac and a Windows XP PC that way.
September 8th, 2005 at 11:01 am
Here’s some more ammunition to back up your story, Charles:
http://www.richardherring.com/warmingup/warmingup.php?id=1035
Richard Herring is a comedian who has been writing a daily blog for several years now. Today’s entry is about setting up his own wireless network!