Yes, yes, I know, we all hear a lot of hyperbole about the “dizzying pace of change” these days. But I was floored by a sidebar to an article in Saturday’s Washpost about changes in PC buying and usage habits. The sidebar chronicles the differences in how people get online, where they obtained their computers, how many they own, etc. in just one year, from 2005 to 2006. In one year, mind you. Check this out:
Primary Method of Internet Access
Dial-up:
8.7% (down from 39.6 percent)
Cable:
50% (up from 36.3 percent)
DSL:
39.7% (up from 22.2 percent)
Satellite Internet:
1.6% (up from 0.7 percent)
====
Home Networks
86% have a home network
63.8% have WiFi
30.6% use wired ethernet
4.8% use phone-line-based network
0.8% use power line
Amazing. The “scree-bzzzzzz-uk-uk-uk” of a modem connection is about to go the way of the sound of a coal scuttle. You’ve got to look in the fine print, by the way, to see the source of these stats: Its’ from the giant IT research firm IDC,
Roedeo Productions 