Internet is necessity for nearly half of users-study
lets just focous on progress of aol, i think sunw, aol, msft will all make great earnings and continue to grow.
it does not have to be one or the other....aol and sunw has made great progess taken the streeet by surprise and i belive w. small pauses here and there it will continue...
By Nicole Volpe
NEW YORK, Dec 3 (Reuters) - Nearly half of online users say
the Internet has become something of a necessity in their lives
and, if stranded on an island, two-thirds would rather have an
Internet connection than a phone or television, according to a
study released by America Online Inc. on Thursday.
About half, or 51 percent, prefer using e-mail to
communicate with business associates than using the telephone
(35 percent) or regular mail (5 percent), the survey said. It
was conducted by Roper Starch, which polled a random sample of
1,001 online and Internet users, both customers of AOL and
other services.
"It is stunning the amount of people who prefer e-mail,"
AOL President Bob Pittman.
"What AOL is looking for is, we are trying to make this
medium as central to people's lives as the telephone or
television," Pittman said. "This says this is happening faster
than we expected it."
Forty-four percent said the interactive medium is just
about a necessity to them, and 77 percent believe it has made
their lives better.
In addition, 71 percent of online consumers say they
regularly or occasionally turn to the Internet for information
about products to buy, both online and in brick-and-mortar
stores.
In a measure of how much people like to stay connected,
half of those with laptops take them along on vacation to go
online, and 26 percent of users check their e-mail on vacation.
Almost three-quarters of the online population characterize
themselves as "novices" or at an "intermediate" level of
expertise in navigating the Web, the study said.
In another indication of how the online audience is coming
to reflect the population as a whole, the study found women
account for 57 percent of new home online subscribers in the
past year, boosting the women's share of the medium to 47
percent overall. Three years ago women made up 38 percent.
The research, conducted in July and August, was the first
in an annual series planned to track such trends and habits as
users become more sophisticated, the company said. The study,
taken from a random sampling of online households, had a margin
of error of plus or minus 3 percent.
((--Nicole Volpe, New York Newsdesk (212) 859-1897)) |
