Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Technology Stocks : 3Com Corporation (COMS) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Beachbumm who wrote (14400)	3/12/1998 12:29:00 AM
From: Mang Cheng	Respond to of 45548

To look at the following article this way - if only 1% of AOL users are using 56K modems, that leaves a HUGE room for upgrade business (I'm an optimist <g>) : ***************************************************************** "Users Slow to Adopt New Net Tools Not So Fast" By George Mannes ABCNEWS.com from TheStreet.com N E W Y O R K, March 5 - Throwing cold water on the growing buzz around high-speed connections to the Internet, America Online Chairman Steve Case today disclosed a sobering statistic. A year after AOL debuted 56 kilobit-per-second telephone connections - the fastest links you can make through conventional phone lines these days - members are using 56 kbps modems less than 1 percent of the time, Case said at a high-profile Internet industry conference today. "That does not bode well for the pace of new technology," said Case. He was speaking on a panel of Internet heavy-hitters like Yahoo!'s Jerry Yang, Amazon.com CEO Jeff Bezos and CNET CEO Halsey Minor. Internet Demand Slowing? Coming on a day when Intel's disclosure of lagging sales turned the market sour on the chipmaker and other tech stocks, Case's factoid was yet another suggestion that tech boosters may be overestimating consumer demand for the latest and greatest techno-toys. If AOL members are in no rush to make a relatively small $100 or $200 investment in a new 56 kbps modem, Case said, it's unlikely they'll want to spend $30-$40 a month for a high-speed telephone or cable connection that requires a complex installation by a professional. "It's nowhere near being easy enough or cheap enough.to be a force in the market," he said, adding it will be three to five years before the situation changes. World Wide Wait Case's comment, made at the fifth annual Consumer Online Services conference run by research firm Jupiter Communications, wasn't the only example that the high-powered panelists cited of how Silicon Valley dreams can be tripped up by real-life realities. Amazon.com's Bezos pointed out that when potential customers visit his upstart bookstore on the Web, they're connecting from work 70 percent of the time. He attributes that to people's impatience. Users would rather connect from the office, where they likely have an instant connection to the Net. That beats logging on from home, where they'd have to boot up their computer and wait around for their modem to dial into a Web connection. "The smallest amount of friction can stop people" from visiting sites like his, Bezos said. Despite warnings like these, the presidents and CEOs on stage were optimistic about their businesses, just as you'd expect them to be, of course, when they're participating in panel discussions at industry conferences. Internet Use to Grow None was fazed by the news from Intel, whose troubles could conceivably reflect a slowing demand for PCs, and, by a reasonable stretch of the imagination, smaller-than-predicted consumer audiences for their services. "It would be hard to imagine that's coming from the consumer side of the business in any meaningful way," said Case of Intel's problems. Bezos, whose Amazon.com has already sold books to more than 1.5 million different people, said his business plans don't depend on continuing sales of new computers. "We're growing in the existing base of people who already have PCs." abcnews.com Mang