Increased demand for networked homes with digital media centers will result in more than 10 times the demand for integrated wired technology by 2010, iSuppli said Thursday.

The electronics industry research firm said shipments of networked devices using home wiring technology will increase to 223.8 million units in 2010 from 17.5 million units in 2006. That means the market for such products will enjoy a compound annual growth rate of 89 percent, noted iSuppli.

Rising demand for wired technology means that Wi-Fi won’t take over the digital home anytime soon. Instead, the shift from a PC-centered home to one that uses multiple gadgets, or multiple units of the same box, throughout many rooms means that wireless hookups won’t be sufficient to connect the home.

“There will be a lot of issues that aren’t [problematic] with just PC content, like digital rights management,” said iSuppli analyst Steve Rago. “Content that is not to be copied… will have to have an awful lot of security and copyright assurances” that wireless technology can’t guarantee.

Plus, the efficacy of wireless is an issue in countries worldwide, Mr. Rago said.

In Germany and some Scandinavian countries, dwellings are built with extra-thick reinforced concrete walls that won’t always allow a Wi-Fi signal to get through. Meanwhile, in Asian metropolises, 60-story buildings housing thousands of residents mean interference and security breaches could occur between users.

What’s more, Mr. Rago said, certain types of workloads will need to be handled through wires while others can be done wirelessly.

“When it comes to real-time viewing [of video content] you absolutely need to provide the same kind of quality that a cable provider or a satellite provider currently can provide,” he said. So an IPTV provider will want to transmit information over a wire that’s part of its own network.

Multiple Boxes

To be sure, if someone just wants to browse the Internet, that can be done via a Wi-Fi network. “I wouldn’t want to be [wired] if I’m sitting by my pool with my laptop,” Mr. Rago said.

The concept of multiple boxes providing Internet and other content throughout the home has already trumped the idea of a central entertainment PC.

“Very few of those [media center PCs] are actually in the living room,” said Gartner analyst Van Baker (see Digital Living Room Isn’t Cozy), adding the market isn’t fully ready for such products.

And niche computer maker Alienware, recently acquired by Dell, hopes to enter the fray with computers designed to have multiple units throughout the home that can provide Internet access and digital entertainment content (see Alienware’s Corporate Push, Dell Abducts Alienware).

And Apple’s Mac Mini is slowly being positioned to take that multiple-unit role.

“This is the first real chance of getting computers into the living room,” Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster said upon the release of a Mini with Front Row software that manages photos, videos, and music (see Mac Minis Get Intel Chips).

The wired vs. wireless needs of various workloads could one day result in a “residential gateway,” a sophisticated digital entertainment box that would be able to differentiate between sessions and route them through wires or Wi-Fi.

“But I don’t see these ever converging into a single network,” Mr. Rago said.