Analysis: What can it do for me?

It means more people living in one household can access multiple devices in the home such as downloading videos, surfing on the net and sending emails.

We are living in an age where technology is becoming more advanced and vendors are meeting these demands by bringing out new products to place in the market.

One day we will be able to buy one product that can access everything in the home from the touch of a button.

The problem for resellers is in the complexity of the products.

Your average Joe on the street doesn’t necessarily understand what all the technical jargon on the side of the packaging means, all he wants to do is plug in the device and start using it as soon as he can.

Graeme Reardon, Linksys regional director, A/NZ, (pictured), agrees.

He said the company was continually looking at what was the best way to get the message across to avoid complexity.

“We want to make networking in the home a lot less complex. Your average consumer is scared of the names of different types of products.

“I don’t want to watch a movie on my PC anymore, I want to download it straight on to the TV in the comfort of my lounge.

"I want a product that doesn’t pick up interference from mobile phones, microwaves, kids playing on their computer games or someone surfing on the net.

“As the entertainment experience in the home expands, digital content will get more complex but how do you educate the market?” said Reardon.

In the future, vendors will bring out more technology to enable users to access the home network but with different types of digital content, how do consumers understand what is going on?

The answer lies with the resellers. It will be their job to educate their customer. They are the ones who will have to explain to their customers what the product can do for them.

“How do you get the message out? It all comes back to what we use the device for. It’s all about what applications you want to run in your home,” said Reardon.

Resellers will have to identify what the customer specifically wants to use the product for, the technical complexity of setting it up, timescale and likely cost of the project.

Ultimately, the buck stops with them because they have to educate the market about technology and convince the customer that they want to buy the product.