Highly valued tools are those that are used by many household members for many kinds of uses, decreasing the cost per use. Devices or services are also highly valued when they enhance the productivity or activity of another device. There are several important implications for new media product and service vendors that emerged from our analysis of connecteds. Help consumers in their quest for meaning, connection, and community. Vendors should leverage consumer desire for communication and connection to build trust for transactions-based services.
Asynchronous communication provides control and flexibility.
Households value tools that allow them to communicate on their own terms. Virtual households engage in a quest for documentation and memory. Households experiencing distributed communication and fragmented household organization desire tangible artifacts of their existence together. Communicating media lead to new language and literacy in the household. Households develop their own media rituals with their communications devices and services that define a social space for the household.