Study: DLNA Needs More Promotion

BOSTON — The Digital Living Network Alliance (DLNA) has made great strides in certifying the interoperability of many media-sharing home network devices, but not enough consumers know about it, Strategy Analytics concluded in a report.

The research company cited a "danger that technical progress is not being matched by marketing initiatives aimed at promoting the benefits of the technology to end users." Only a fraction of DLNA-compliant devices are "actively labeled or marketed as such, and some industry players privately express frustration at progress on these issues," the company said.

"Promoting the benefits of DLNA to consumers is the next, and most challenging, step in this long term endeavor," said company VP David Mercer. "A strong marketing program is now vital to ensure that DLNA's many industry supporters can begin to recoup their significant investments in interoperability verification and certification procedures."

Peter King, Strategy's Connected Home Devices service director, pointed out that major companies such as Nokia, Sony, Hewlett-Packard, Philips and Intel are offering devices that share media "with impressive ease of use and slickness." Nonetheless, "although Sony actively promotes DLNA certification in its domestic market, there is little sign elsewhere in the world that DLNA means anything to anyone outside the vendor community," he concluded.