A new study has found that consumer demand for networking features could drive the next wave of consumer electronics purchasing, particularly for imaging and mobile devices such as digital cameras, photo frames, and mobile phones.

International research firm Parks Associates found in the survey, entitled Digital Media Evolution, that almost half of U.S. broadband households want a network-enabled digital camera, and 40 percent want a network-enabled digital photo frame. That's because consumers are seeing more value in, say, transferring a photo or music track between devices, or transferring a call from a cell phone to a landline while it's in progress. (Good luck with those DRM-encrypted music and video files, though.)

"We're entering a new stage in home networking, where interoperability between fixed and portable devices defines new user experiences," said Kurt Scherf, vice president and principal analyst of Parks Associates, in a statement. "This trend will guide the development of powerful but energy-efficient networking solutions and the design of middleware and user interfaces that can be implemented on multiple devices running a variety of processors and core software."