Digital living takes off in Asia [BBC]
Asian countries lead the world in creating digital homes, with Taiwan and Korea at the forefront, says a study.
The research, carried out by US market research firm Parks Associates, looked at digital living trends in 13 markets in Asia, Europe and North America.
The findings were announced at the annual Broadcast Asia trade show, held in Singapore.
Between 600 and 1,400 households in each country took part in the survey of consumer habits in the wired world.
One of the main themes of the survey is the “digital living index”. This examines the availability, adoption, and use of technology-driven products and services in each individual country.
Asian tech giants Taiwan and Korea came first and second in the index, followed by the US, Canada, Japan, and Australia. Five European countries – the UK, Germany, France, Spain and Italy – came in sixth to eleventh place, with China and India in the last two spots.
Speakers at the conference outlined a vision of the digital home as being more than just an environment where all devices were interconnected and all media distributed digitally. The ability to customise the user interface and share content was essential. The key concepts were simplicity, personalisation and convergence.
“All the innovation is coming from Japan and Korea on the consumer products side, whereas all the connectivity on the PC front is coming from Taiwan and the US.” said Emmanuel Dieppedalle, regional marketing director of Philips.
