Английский язык: Аннотирование и реферирование текста

228 other than PCs – such as TiVo, a popular digital video recorder – 17 % also store movies and TV shows. In theory, these people could soon avail themselves of new wireless-networking technologies, such as an emerging standard called "ultrawideband", to pipe all this content from their collections to electronic picture frames, screens and portable de- vices. Joined - up thinking That is not at all what they want to do today, however. Another study by Parks Associates found that 89 % of people with a home- computer network felt that the relatively modest goal of sharing internet access is its most important function, with printer-sharing the second priority. Worse, 27 % of people who bought network gear said that they ran into problems during configuration, leading many to call the help desk of their internet service provider (who may or may not be respon- sible for the problem) at an estimated annual cost of $1.4 billion to that industry. Even downloading entertainment, as opposed to buying it on discs, appears over-hyped. According to a study by the OECD, there were over 230 websites offering 1m tracks in America and Europe at the end of 2004. But these online sales accounted for less than 2 % of total music revenues; even with fast growth, they are projected to rise only by 5-10 % by 2008. All this points to a huge problem with the digital-home vision: the lack, among most consumers, of any sense of crisis about the status quo in entertainment. "We don't think many folks are looking for an electronic nerve centre in their homes," says Pip Coburn, who runs Coburn Ventures, a technology-consulting and investment firm. After all, popping in a DVD, say, is so easy and works so well. By contrast, getting a digital home up and running promises several lost weekends of fiddling with manuals and settings, and hefty expenses in new gear. According to Mr. Coburn's formula for evaluating new technologies, whereby adoption is a function of the users' sense of crisis (i.e., motiva- tion to change) outweighing their perceived pain of switching, the digi- tal home ranks as a clear "loser".