<< Dan , have you tried any of the "net software" and compared it to AOL?? There is no comparison , AOL's software is lousy for any Internet application. Do you use Netscape, Eudora, or Free-agent?? >>
Hey Mark,
Now that you can use AOL and not watch the clock, what possible advantage do ISPs have? I'm not sure of the Mac details, but if you use the Windows version of AOL, you can download AOL's winsock and use any net app you want. You can use Netscape or whatever browser you please outside of AOL. Granted, you can't use the email or news features of netscape when running outside of AOL (since AOL doesn't provide smtp or nntp servers for public use). The browser integrated into the client (will be Microsoft IE) jumps you to the AOL client email interface or the newsgroups interface when you come across "mailto:" or "news:" urls.
So, for the same (or less if you buy a year or two chunks) price as an ISP, you get all of AOL's proprietary content (Motley Fool, Company Research, News Profiles, online magazines, chat rooms, 10Mb of disk space for ftp or html or whatever, etc.) plus access to the web either integrated with AOL's client or separate (i.e. Netscape). Plus, you can access AOL all over the globe now.
How will the stock react? Short term, I bet it'll be rather volatile as people try to understand the implications of incurring marketing costs as they occur and the effects of the new pricing plan. Long term, the subscriber base will grow, AOL will garner a decent amount of money from subscriber access, but I suspect the majority of revenues will be derived from advertising. The only question, IMHO, is whether AOL's system can support the load with quick enough response times. I'm bullish on AOL's long term prospects, in light of today's announcements/restructuring.
-Rich |
