Portable CEs to boost consumer NAS market

Although networked-attached storage (NAS) found little market in the past, the influx of portable CE and computing devices in homes in the coming years will change how consumers look at centralized storage, revealed a recent research from In-Stat. The need for NAS will be pushed by the need for content access, driving global consumer NAS shipment growth to 36 percent CAGR from 2010–2015.

"The market for consumer NAS has come a long way in the last year. Many vendors have concentrated on simplifying the description of their systems, system setup and management of their products," said Norm Bogen, VP of research, In-Stat. "The end goal for this transformation is for NAS systems to appear less technical and more consumer-friendly."

Recent research from In-Stat revealed that combined market shares of the five largest vendors, namely Buffalo Technology, Apple, Western Digital, Iomega and NETGEAR increased to 62.8 percent in total consumer and SMB NAS shipments in 2010. The firm added that worldwide revenues for consumer NAS were approximately $678.4 million last year. In 2015, Europe is forecast to claim about 50 percent of all consumer NAS unit shipments, while the estimated household penetration of the device in North America will be about 4.4 percent.

The research entitled "Worldwide Consumer Network-Attached Storage: Low Penetration, High Growth" covers the global market for consumer network storage including market forecasts, challenges and opportunities; consumer surveys; vendor market shares and product matrix.