Kurt Scherf, VP Parks Associates, said the MCE and DMA dependence on home networking was and is the biggest hurdle the products face in gaining consumer acceptance.

“Home networking is still not that easy, so it is not easy to derive the full benefit from these devices. In addition, consumer awareness of the existence of these products is still really low and prices were initially high,” Schurf said, adding the fact that 25 percent of U.S. homes have a home network, which is a huge plus for this technology.

Despite its shortcomings, Parks Associates still sees some growth for the category in the coming years, but Scherf said acceptance of the technology in both stand-alone and embedded formats will depend upon the availability of content.

Michael Cai of Parks estimates sales for non-MCE DMA shipments could be in the millions by 2009. However, this is highly dependant upon how well companies do promoting their multimedia tools, like Intel's Viiv technology.

From the article "Digital Bridge Devices Flounder At Retail," by Doug Olenick.

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