DUBLIN, Ireland, March 24 /PRNewswire/ -- Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/reports/c14552) has announced the addition of Media Networking 2005: the Networked Living Room Becomes A Reality to their offering.

(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20040820/RESEARCH )

With technical standards development and consumer education challenges for vendors still looming large but becoming less burdensome, media networking will continue to grow rapidly through 2009. According to this new report total media networking connections in homes will grow from over 50 million in 2005 to over 200 million in 2009, a 29% compound annual growth rate. Much of the growth will be driven by PC vendors, who are rolling out Media Center PCs that fit the living room in terms of style and function.

Key findings of this report: - The Media Center PCs are still considered premium consumer PCs, but it is expected that their media hub features will become standard on almost all PCs within the next three years. - Despite the market's growth, many technical issues will continue to persist. For example, the next-generation wireless standard, 802.11n, has not been finished and will not be complete until 2006. - Outside of the technical readiness of the standards enabling media networking, there is still the need to create the awareness and demand for these products among end users

This report forecasts the worldwide market for media networking devices by installed base, units shipped, revenue, and PHY connections. It also includes an examination of media network standards and vendor profiles.

With the technical and consumer education standards still looming large but becoming less of a hurdle, media networking is expected to continue to grow rapidly throughout the forecast period. Much of the growth will be driven by PC vendors, who are rolling out Media Center PCs that fit both in look and function in the living room. The early models are still considered premium consumer PCs, but it is expected that capabilities to make the PC and whole-home media hub will become standard within the next three years. The integration of media ports into CE devices will continue, with many devices having Ethernet and 802.11x ports standard in coming years. Total media networking connections will grow from over 51 million in 2005 to over 223 million in 2009, a 29% annual growth rate.

Topics covered in this report include: - Market Segments - The Media Center PC - CE Media Servers - Set-Top Boxes - Fixed Function Media Server - Media Server as CE Function - Media Adapters - Other Media Networking Devices - Standards - EDCA/WME Wireless Medium Access Mechanism - HCCA/WSM Wireless Medium Access Mechanism - Wi-Fi Multimedia (WMM) QoS Profile - UWB - Media Networking Standards - Selected Vendor Profiles Companies Profiled: Digital 5 D-Link Denon Intel KiSS Technology A/S Linksys Microsoft Netgear Orb Networks Thomson Sling Media ViewSonic

For more information visit http://www.researchandmarkets.com/reports/c14552

Laura Wood Senior Manager Research and Markets press@researchandmarkets.com Fax: +353 1 4100 980

CONTACT: Laura Wood, Senior Manager, Research and Markets,
Fax: +353-1-4100-980, press@researchandmarkets.com

Web site: http://www.researchandmarkets.com/reports/c14552