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Technology Stocks : America On-Line: will it survive ...? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: rhet0ric who wrote (8806)	3/13/1998 12:03:00 PM
From: steve lipson	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 13594

Seems like only yesterday that I posted my answer to that line of reasoning. But I looked and it was actually two days ago. Been there, done that. Message 3670516

To: rhet0ric who wrote (8806)	3/13/1998 12:07:00 PM
From: Sam	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 13594

What I'm saying is that AOL won't even exist by then, because a) it can't scale its own network to provide broadband services, b) its user base will crumble when AOL's technological lag behind the Internet becomes obvious, and c) without a user base it has no leverage to do anything. The only hope I see for AOL is to convert to TCP/IP. Again, even if they do that successfully, which I doubt, they will then be one among many fiercely competitive ISPs and listing sites, all fighting for market share in one of the least profitable markets on the Web. LOL. I'm getting a good chuckle here. Your telling me that AOL can't scale its network to provide broadband services, but every other provider can? First off, it might not be AOL's burden to scale the broadband network. Perhaps WCOM, UUNet, Sprint, etc. will do that for us. Second, I'm not sure why you think AOL's technology is lagging behind. The new AOL 4.0 client is totally TCP/IP compliant, will contain the latest browser, etc. Also, the user base is increasing in size, not decreasing, so I don't know why you think there won't be any subs left. No need to worry about thin clients, TCP/IP, xDSL technologies, Lite DSL, etc. etc. AOL already talks shop with all the major vendors on this technology. You bears must think that AOL has no idea what broadband even means. Duh. When such technology becomes a consumer technology, you can bet that AOL will be on the forefront. Where bears think of how such technologies will be the downfall of AOL, AOL thinks of how to leverage these technologies to continue the success of the company - as has been the case for over 10 years. S.