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

To: The Duke who wrote (10294)	6/17/1998 6:26:00 PM
From: Andrew Furst	Respond to of 13594

Duke, I understand your point regarding "brand name"; I just feel AOL is not a commodity service, while I believe AT&T is just that. It's very easy for a person to switch from AT&T to Sprint or MCI, with the same quality of service at an equal or better price/minute. Thus I feel that AT&T's 50% or so market share of long distance will not stand the test of time. AOL on the other hand is one of a kind; it's by far the largest creator of proprietary online content. AOL offers their own content, plus Internet access, for about the same price as most Internet-only providers. One could argue that most users are only interested in Internet access, thus AOL is simply a commodity - and will have to compete will all other ISPs on a commodity basis. This is probably the biggest difference in the perception of AOL between the bulls and bears. The bears see AOL as a commodity provider with an oversized market value, the bulls see AOL as a unique service that consumers prefer to the competition. My belief is that AOL is more than just a brand name, but a unique service; while I feel AT&T is simply a commodity provider, with a brand name who's value will diminish over time.