Although competition in this space has increased, the analyst firm believes that "sound opportunities" remain for storage vendors.
"However, many consumers are still not familiar with Lan-capable storage products," said In-Stat analyst Joyce Putscher. "Consumer education is likely to benefit from Windows Home Server partners."
Recent research by In-Stat predicts that Windows Home Server purchasers will mainly be educated by PC vendors, while traditional network storage purchasers will be educated by networking equipment and storage vendors.