Consumers spend big on tech, then scratch heads wondering why

Stan Beer
Thursday, 03 April 2008 07:03

IT Industry - Market

A new report indicates that Australian consumers are spending more than ever on technology but in many cases they don't have the skills to use it properly.  What's more, in many cases consumers are spending money on unnecessary new items that do the same job as products they already have.

The report by Galaxy Research, titled The gizmo Household Technology Study, found that computers and networking are among the biggest banes of Australian households, causing consumers who lack knowledge and skills to spend unnecessarily on duplicate products and services.

The survey found that Australian households with two or more computers are often paying for more than one Internet connection because they don't have a home network set up to share a single Internet service.

According to the report, seven in ten of Australians surveyed have two or more computers in their household, implying that there are large numbers of people who could create a household network without purchasing extra equipment. However, 40% of those surveyed with two or more computers did not have file sharing enabled, and 18% admitted that not all computers had access to the internet.

In addition, 11% of surveyed Australians admitted to paying for two or more internet connections, when a networked house would allow all computers to share a single connection.

Printers were also singled out as products on which consumers waste their money unnecessarily.

The report found that one in three Australians surveyed (36%) have two or more printers in their household, yet almost half of these (46%) are not able to print from all computers to all printers, without the time consuming process of swapping files or cables. CONTINUED