Tekboy
O/T RE: AOL's success--relentlessly reinventing itself.
A power company?
<<America Online, the world's largest Internet access provider, and computer maker IBM have joined with Enron to form a new power company to deliver gas and electricity to residences and small businesses.>>
yahoo.cnet.com
My AOL confession is similar, with a twist. I purchased my first computer about five years ago with AOL preinstalled. I set up, logged on, and began surfing at 28.8 kbs. I felt a great rush of self efficacy. It was fun jumping around AOL's quirky "intranet." The interface was clunky and slow, but I felt comfortable. Heck, I didn't know any better.
Then we got a T-1 line at work, and the love affair with AOL ended. I kept my account, but used it less. Too slow. And then a few things happened. More and more friends and family joined AOL. They upgraded their interface, offered more proprietary goodies, offered an AOL credit card which enabled me to garner enough points to pay for my AOL, and yes, there's that E-mail address thing. Sticky, but still not enough.
This spring, I was ready to leave for the promise of broadband, which was finally offered in my town. So what does AOL do? They launch this new service, their very own broadband service dubbed AOL Plus. What the heck, I ordered it. They authorized the DSL provisioning through Bell Atlantic, mailed me an Efficient Networks SpeadStream 4060 modem, which I connected to my computer's USB and voila, I'm now surfing and getting my phone calls on the same line. And I'm decidedly non-tech. It's been two months with no down time. I understand this is in limited roll-out, but once again, AOL has found a way to make it easy for the average person. And for me this is good enough.
What's next for AOL? Demand side management of energy usage, telephony, online bill presentment and payment, AOL TV... All of which they're already doing, and doing just good enough.
Janet |
