Home office

The widespread use of the personal computer and associ-ated peripherals such as printers has made it more practi-cal for many people to do at least part of their work from their homes. In addition to traditional freelance occupa-tions such as writing and editing, many other businesses including consulting, design, and sales can now be con-ducted from a home office. Computer hardware and soft-ware makers began to target a distinctive market niche that is sometimes referred to as SOHO (Small Office / Home Office), thus including both actual home offices and small commercial offices.

As a market, the SOHO has somewhat different require-ments than the large offices traditionally served by major computer vendors:

•  Relatively modest PCs as compared to heavy-duty file servers or workstations

•  Peripherals shared by two or more PCs (although the plummeting price of printers made it common to pro-vide each PC with its own printer)

•  The need for a small “footprint”—that is, minimizing the space taken up by the equipment. Multifunction peripherals (typically incorporating printer, scanner, copier, and perhaps a fax machine) are a popular solu-tion to this requirement.

•  A simple local network (see local area network) with shared Internet access

•  Low-end or midrange software (such as Microsoft Works or Office Small Business edition as opposed to the full-blown Office suite)

•  Application for collaboration and productivity deliv-ered via the Web (such as Google Apps) may also be an attractive alternative.

•  Available installation and support (since many home users lack technical hardware or system administra-tion skills)

Although the home or small office remains a signifi-cant market segment, specific targeting to the segment has become more difficult. With falling PC prices and increas-ing capabilities, there is little difference today between a mid-level “consumer” computer system and the kinds of systems previously marketed for home office use.