bgraham
join:2001-03-15
Smithtown, NY
 ·Verizon FIOS
| I Never Could Understand AOL
AOL never had much to offer anyone in my opinion. Maybe many years ago pre internet it gave road warriors a way of getting their email almost anywhere in the world.
The only record breaking thing AOL ever did was make about a zillion cd's which must have cost them a fortune. I read somewhere that they spend about 6 months customer revenue getting each customer, which means that if you dumped them after 4 or 5 months they would loose money.
They ignored broadband for years thinking that their customers, who were supposedly happy with their crippled internet, would not notice that dial up is terrible.
I am sure as people get more web savvy and broadband becomes more available the AOL part of the company is going to become a smaller and smaller. |
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clickhappy
join:2001-02-14
Issaquah, WA
| said by bgraham:
The only record breaking thing AOL ever did was make about a zillion cd's which must have cost them a fortune. I read somewhere that they spend about 6 months customer revenue getting each customer, which means that if you dumped them after 4 or 5 months they would loose money.
Huh?
Like it or not AOL brought the Internet to the masses. They helped shape the so-called new economy.
You think broadband is easy? That AOL is the only provider that rolled-out a half baked product with shoddy service?
AOL isn't for everyone. But for Jon and Jane Doe who just want something quick and easy, it's perfect. |
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sharkbyte0
join:2000-09-07
Lansdale, PA
| reply to bgraham
quote:
The only record breaking thing AOL ever did was make about a zillion cd's which must have cost them a fortune
ROFL!...yeah, I remember getting them in a box of Lucky Charms.
AOL is for newbies or the non techno-file. Once a newbie becomes somewhat technically savvy, they dump AOL for bigger & better things. AOL has become a stagnent, un-idividualized service.
Regards
Shark...
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416/416 SDSL thru Megapath |
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2farfromCO7
join:2000-10-14
Farmington, MI
| reply to bgraham
How can you say they ignored broadband?? They bought the 2nd largest cable company. What else can they do but that. They probably have the 2nd most broadband customers(Time Warner Cable customers) of any company in America. AOL is a dial-up with nationwide availabilty(as it is relatively easy to do that). There is no way to provide broadband access nationwide profitably in the current state of the telecom and cable industries. The only way this could be done is by running on the back of a DSL and cable company which is not profitable. No company can own nationwide broadband infrastructure in todays climate. Yes AOL will lose all of their customers outside Time Warner cities in the long-run, however there wasn't really anything they could've done about it. |
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unixgirlie
@mindspring.n | sure they merged with the 2nd largest cable company . . . 2 yrs after other ISPs began offering broadband to their customers. i'd say they did some ignoring. |
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2farfromCO7
join:2000-10-14
Farmington, MI
| Fine, but what ignoring are they doing now??? 2 years ago couldn't be that late to the party. Almost nobody could get broadband of any kind in my top 10% of the wealthiest INNER INNER suburb in 2000. What did you expect them to do? What has any other non-infrastructure ISP done? Earthlink has a lot of DSL users who run on the backs of the RBOCs, but they almost surely lose money on all of them. |
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2farfromCO7
join:2000-10-14
Farmington, MI | reply to unixgirlie
Ok, let me ask you a question: name me an ISP that HASN'T ignored broadband. Earthlink? MSN? Who? All I know is that none of these companies makes nearly as much money off of broadband as AOL-Time Warner, if they actually turn a profit at all. |
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unixgirlie
@mindspring.n
| reply to 2farfromCO7
waiting 2 yrs to jump on a market in a technical industry is a VERY long time. thats enough time to let any other company kick your ass completely in a market.
dsl cost just as much in 2000 as it does now ($50), so saying only the rich people could afford it then is so very untrue. the only difference in price between then and now is install prices - many ISPs now have promotions which give discounted or free installs. |
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BridgeTapBob
join:2002-03-26
Indianapolis, IN
| reply to bgraham
Hey graham, for every million cd's manufactured it cost aol 5 cents each. They are all manufactured overseas. 30 million cd's is only 1.5 million dollars. According to recent numbers, it takes 5 cd's to get a consumer to try aol.
So...the 30 million members cost them roughly 8 million dollars in AOL CD production. And this assuming the CD's are what drove aol's explosion. This is not the case. Wow, that is a pun "Not The Case". It was a mere drop in the bucket.
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"What do you mean Im past 18,000 feet!!!!' |
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