Easy Storage

A small survey of 300 online consumers who access services from their homes shows that 35 percent download files daily or weekly. Sponsored by 3M Corporation and conducted by Fleishman-Hillard Research, the study garnered responses from 300 business users and 300 home users of online services.

According to the survey, which was conducted over a one-week period, one in five users experience frustration as they discover their current PC systems lack adequate storage capacity to handle these files. Users are experiencing frustration despite the fact that the average hard drive tops 760MB for business users and 500MB for home users surveyed.

Although business users head for the Internet more often than home users surveyed, 11 percent of home users are already downloading files in the 5MB to 10MB range. Of the respondents, 94 percent of the business users said they also use a computer at home, while 78 percent of home users said they also use a PC at work.

The 3M study also revealed that both business users and home users expect their use the Net and online services to increase within the next 12 months. Most also said they expect to download larger files within the same time period.

Twenty-seven percent of home users surveyed said they use the Net or a commercial online service every day. Eighty-one percent of consumers said they use some type of online service once a week.