80% of consumers would rather lose their digital camera than their digital photographs

Rotterdam (the Netherlands), October 2009 – Although 94% of consumers consider their digital content to be valuable, 42% have, at some time, lost digital photographs, music, films or files. There are different ways to keep your digital content safe and one of the latest developments is a Home Storage Center/NAS (Network Attached Storage). Almost half of the respondents (47%) said that they did not know what a Home Storage Center/NAS was. However, after its use was explained to them, 75% of the respondents said that they thought they would benefit from a solution that allows them to safely store their digital content in a central location from where it could be shared with all the other users in the home. This is one of the findings from a large-scale investigation into the use of digital content held by Sitecom among more than 5,000 consumers in 11 European countries.

99% of the respondents had digital photographs and 90% had digital music or films. 65% of the respondents who said that they had digital photographs had more than 5,000 photographs. Almost half of the consumers (44%) saved digital photographs, music and films on more than one computer, which can often be inconvenient, since it makes it difficult to find certain files. 31% of the respondents saved all of their digital content on one computer, which is unsafe. This is remarkable, since 80% said that they would rather lose their digital camera than their digital photographs. If the user's computer crashes or is stolen, then they would lose all of their digital files, including their holiday photographs and photographs of important events, such as a wedding, a birth or a graduation. Only 18% of the respondents used a hard drive as well as a computer.

42% of the respondents had lost digital content at some time in the past. The results of the investigation show that the most common cause of the loss of digital content is a computer crash or another storage device, such as a hard disk or USB stick, crashing. The Sitecom Home Storage Center from the new Smart Living range allows digital files to be safely stored in a central location in a network from where they can be shared with all the other users in the home. The Home Storage Center is the safest place for your valuable digital files.

The first products from the new Smart Living range, including the MD-253 Home Storage Center, will be available from October and will have an extensive 10-year Sitecom warranty.

Results

• 99% of the respondents have digital photographs.
• 65% of the respondents have more than 5,000 digital photographs.
• 90% of the respondents have digital music or films.
• 31% of the respondents save all their digital content on one computer.
• 44% of the respondents save all their digital content on more than one computer.
• 94% of the respondents consider their digital content to be valuable.
• 80% of the respondents would rather lose their digital camera than their digital photographs.
• 42% of the respondents had lost digital content at some time in the past.
• 47% of the respondents did not know what a Home Storage Center/NAS (Network Attached Storage) was.
• After the respondents had the possibilities of a Home Storage Center explained to them, 75% of them said that they would benefit from such a solution.