I asked my teenager daughter whether she knew about MSN's instant messager, she said 'of course, I knew it, but who cares? All my
friends are in AIM, you can't just switch your instant messager yourself!' and she has a circle of friends counted around 100.
This attitude is seen very valuable by AOL, the users of AIM or ICQ
are so closely tight together, they are 'very loyal' to AOL (not
their choice sometimes, just like we are using WINDOW because
everyoneelse is using it).
AIM and ICQ are free for anyone, you don't have to be an AOL
subscriber, if YHOO, MSN, PRGY wants to use it, just download it, no
charge, so why they want to 'touch' AOL's server? because
using AIM or ICQ is good for their ISP members but not good
for their bottom line.
AOL gives AIM and ICQ away for free, what about MSFT? their
window is not free.
AOL is willing to pay the same as ATHM pays to ATT for using their
pipes, AOL is asking for a free access of ATT's pipes and ATT
wants to confuse the 'open access' issue here.
AOL should keep their ICQ and AIM member database because most people
who use instant messager are using AIM or ICQ, if a new software
available, these software cannot get enough interest because
it is 'quiet' there.
If MSN or YHOO or PRGY or anyone wants to enrich their members' life
they can just let them use AIM or ICQ, just like we use WINDOW, use
Office products, as long as my files can be used by others, and
mostly, 'others' are using window too.
I trust AOL's management to make wise decision on this issue, to make
a killer application also a killer money machine because most AIM
or ICQ users are kids, they will grow up and become AOL member! |
