HAVE you wondered what other uses a home or office network could offer apart from connecting you to the Internet?

According to Mr George Wong, D-Link’s marketing director for South-east Asia, there is an increasing demand for networked storage devices and IP (Internet protocol) cameras that connect wirelessly to a network. And the Taiwan-based networking company, known for its wireless routers, plans to capitalise on this market opportunity by diversifying into products that build on the IP network.

D-Link is focusing on its IP camera range this year and is launching a series of campaigns to educate consumers about what they can do with IP cameras. Elaborating on the use of IP cameras, Mr Wong said: “Consumers can keep an eye on their kids and the elderly at home. And they can view the footage from the office or from a mobile phone. The cameras also come with features like motion detection.”

D-Link has 12 IP cameras on the market that sport such features. It plans to launch five more high-end models that are equipped with up to 22x optical zoom and come in a more rugged and shock-proof exterior.

Mr Wong added that there is an increase in the number of networked storage devices for the home because people want to back up data on multiple computers and centralise their storage.

D-Link will soon release an entry-level storage area network device called the DNS-323. The device would allow users to add easily accessible storage on their networks or even use it as a media server to store and stream media files.

Apart from diversifying its product range, the company wants to focus on service and support. “The consumer space for wireless devices, such as wireless routers and IP cameras, is becoming quite a competitive area because there is not much product differentiation. What needs to be differentiated is reliability, services support, ready availability of products and strong retail channels to reach customers,” said Mr Wong.

“It’s still not that easy to set up networking devices. Not everybody has the technical know-how to set up security features in a product — that’s where our service and support comes in.”