Report: Apple to be hub of the digital home by 2013

[onehandle]

The next five years are going to be very interesting for Apple if a new report from market research firm Forrester is correct. The company predicts that Apple will rule the digital home by 2013.

Using Apple’s history over the past eight years when the company remade itself from a computer maker to a leader in consumer devices and the digital music market, Forrester said the precedent has been set for radical change over the next five years. Forrester analysts J.P. Gownder and James McQuivey predict that Apple will offer eight key products and services to connect PCs and digital content to the TV-stereo infrastructure in consumers’ homes. The strategy will include launching new products and re-engineering some existing services.

For instance, the report says that Apple will re-engineer the Apple Store and expand into in-home installation services to deliver a fully integrated digital experience. The analysts also expect Apple to release a home server that won’t contain the word “server” and release a remote that controls music from all of a users devices, including iPods, home stereo and computers.

Networked enabled digital frames and clock radios that stream images and tunes from the aforementioned server are also on the list. Finally, Forrester expects Apple TV to move to Apple HDTV.

http://www.macworld.com/article/133582/2008/05/applehome.html