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Strategies & Market Trends : Rande Is . . . HOME -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Rande Is who wrote (1773)	1/8/1999 1:31:00 PM
From: Bucky Katt	Respond to of 57584

I am leaving early too. 24 years of marriage anniv. today, must take wife downtown, when she gets home. (She is a CPA) I like your idea on the music thing...

To: Rande Is who wrote (1773)	1/8/1999 1:43:00 PM
From: Bucky Katt	Respond to of 57584

Add AHWY to that music list, way up on news...>>audiohighway.com is an Internet-based information and entertainment company which through its AudioCast System, uses the capabilities of the World Wide Web to enable users to download from the Internet and play back selected audio content such as audio books, music, timely new programs and other forms of information and entertainment. The Company currently has available on its Web site audio content from such providers as National Public Radio, Newsweek On Air, Associated Press, Penguin Books, USA, ESPN, and Compact Classics. For more information, contact the Company at (408) 255-5301 or (800)-77LISTEN, or visit its Web site at audiohighway.com.

To: Rande Is who wrote (1773)	1/8/1999 5:10:00 PM
From: Mammon	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 57584

Rande - Thanks again for the PRFM heads up. I bought more this morning, left the house, just came back, and was delighted with the price and volume increases. Any predictions for Monday? (Was the run supposed to start this early? :-)

To: Rande Is who wrote (1773)	1/8/1999 8:13:00 PM
From: Robert	Respond to of 57584

A letter from Steve Case: January 5, 1999 Dear Members: With this New Year, we are entering the final days of the century and the millennium. Many believe -- as we do at AOL -- that the next century will be defined by the integration of the Internet into people's lives, into society and into our global economy. So, as we start the new year, it seems like a good time to take stock of our progress in building something we can all be proud of. By almost any measure, the Internet truly came of age in 1998. Its phenomenal growth rate accelerated, bringing tens of millions of people online for the first time. Its influence was clearly felt in many aspects of our lives including politics, education, business, and media. Interactive services like personal finance and online shopping skyrocketed in popularity. More and more people began to use interactive services as an important tool for making their lives easier and more convenient. At AOL, our focus is on building a global medium that will one day be as central to people's lives as the telephone or television -- and even more valuable. In many ways, you are pioneers, helping us make the promise of this new medium a reality. We provide the tools, but you bring them to life by making them part of your life -- keeping in touch with family members, getting breaking news and then discussing its implications, using research resources to expand your horizons, educating yourself about product options and comparing prices, and so forth. We recently commissioned a survey to help us understand how the interactive medium is changing our world. The America Online/Roper Starch Cyberstudy 1998 found that nearly two-thirds of Internet consumers who have been online three or more years now view the interactive medium as a necessity to their lives. That's quite remarkable, given that just a few years ago not many people were using these services and most thought of them as a novelty! Nearly 90% of all online consumers say they would miss the Internet if it were no longer available to them, and more than three-quarters believe Internet services have made their lives better. When asked what they would prefer to have with them if stranded on a desert island, more than two-thirds said they would prefer to have a computer with an Internet connection compared to just 23% who wanted a telephone and only 9% who opted for a television. My, how times have changed! Why are interactive services becoming more central to our lives? The answer that appears over and over again in the Cyberstudy reflects our own experience. More than eight in ten online consumers say the Internet makes their every day lives easier and more convenient. When asked about 16 everyday tasks like finding financial information, shopping, and education, online consumers say doing these activities online are easier than "the way they used to do it." Another great strength of the online medium -- and one you know is a high priority for AOL -- is its ability to bring people together. Nearly 90% of online consumers say they regularly or occasionally go online to communicate with friends and family, and almost all say that the online medium makes communicating with friends and family easier. At work, more than half of online consumers say e-mail is their preferred choice to keep in touch with business associates. Almost half of laptop owners say they take their machines with them on vacation . . . and over one-quarter of online consumers check their e-mail on vacation. Eight in ten parents say they go online with their children under 18. ** Almost three in ten people online say they regularly or occasionally "meet new people with common interests online." Of those who meet new people online, over 90% say it is easier in cyberspace than the real world. And, of course, the new online ways to research products and shop online is also a significant driver of the medium's success. In fact, a majority of those who have shopped online say it's the easiest way to make purchases, and nearly three-quarters of the online consumer population say they go online to get information about products to buy. Some of the most important results of the Cyberstudy reflect how online consumers see the online medium affecting their lives and benefiting society in the future. The majority believe that the Internet is poised to most greatly affect education, the workplace, the media and entertainment. More than two-thirds of those online feel that it "is important for children today to know how to go online and use the Internet." And almost half think that being online has a more positive influence on children than watching television. What's most amazing about the evolution of this medium is that -- for all of the successes and attention it has attracted -- we are really at the beginning of its evolution. It's comparable to the telephone in the 1920s or the television in the 1950s -- and it's being integrated into society at a speed much greater than either of those mediums. Only one-quarter of American households are online today and, of those, nearly two-thirds got connected within the past two years. As more people get connected, and people embed interactive services even more in their lives, I'm sure we'll see attitudes change even more dramatically over the years. When this company was founded in 1985, we hoped to play a role in building a new medium and a more connected society. We've certainly come a long way in the past 13 years -- but there's still much to be done to make AOL even more useful in the everyday lives of even more people, to make our company an even better place to work for, and with, and to make this new medium an even more valuable force in society. We've always viewed this as a marathon, not a sprint, and continue to believe the best is yet to come! Happy New Year! Warm Regards, Steve Case