What has this world comed to

[Ironcurtin]

Aol have their own comp packages now Aolpc . WHat has this freaking world com to. WOW

[Clp727]

Maybe they think that a better internet means a different PC??

[Apeman3289]

personally, i think thats pretty retarded...why would aol need a computer package???

[Floydr47]

personally, i think thats pretty retarded...why would aol need a computer package???

This is a new twist to an old game...years ago, AT&T would sell their hardware (Telephones, etc.) to their customers in a monthly payment plan. A portion of the telephones price was included in each months telephone bill. This helped people who didn't have and couldn't afford the cost of the full price of the product all in one payment. Kind of an in-house financing plan. It increased AT&T's profits by building a larger user base...I see this happening with AOL in the future. A chicken in every pot, and AOL Comp in every home...could AOL be the next Ma Bell?

[Gormless]

personally, i think thats pretty retarded...why would aol need a computer package???

Sure most users (probably all) in this forum are not for AOL, but they are still making the money, even if it is retarded. Most of AOL users are parents, because of AOL Guardian. Which limits their kids use on the computer. Parents can monitior their kids instant messages and email. AOL is User friendly. It is pretty easy to figure out, which makes AOL so “obsolete.” All though I’m not particularly fond of AOL it is interesting to me how they “lure” people in by making different items such as this AOL computer.

http://www.aol.com/why_choose_aol.adp
(Information on why AOL)

Gormless

[murakami]

Heh,

Aolpc == Orwellian 1984 viewscreens

or

Aolpc == Farenheit 451 televisions

Montag? Montag?

[skroo]

Aol have their own comp packages now Aolpc . WHat has this freaking world com to. WOW

It's an attempt by AOL to bolster their declining user base and stock value. Problem is, this is basically the Internet Appliance market and was explored by several companies (Be, Inc., Microsoft, the iOpener) about five years ago with no real success. People don't want IAs that are largely access-only devices: they want general-purpose computers that they can use for tasks other than simply surfing the web.

While this is arguably a more comprehensive approach to the bundled software equation than those companies took, there's one other thing AOL has to overcome in all of this: people view computers as slotting into roughly the same category as home appliances when they buy them - but they're using the same pricing models that cellular companies apply to their hardware: pay for the unit, which you can only get at the cheap price if you take out a service contract with them. This could easily end up biting them on the ass, since most people wouldn't use this pricing model with, say, a dishwasher - and they see their computer as falling into the same category.

Either way, it doesn't really matter. AOL sucks, blah blah blah. We've known this for what, nearly 15 years now? It's a rather tired theme.

[astcell]

One company had the "Audrey" that was supposed to sit by your phone and give you e-mail capabilities.

[Floydr47]

One company had the "Audrey" that was supposed to sit by your phone and give you e-mail capabilities.

About 15 years ago Cisco teamed with Bell Telephone and manufactured a keyboard for your telephone that allowed you to conduct banking transactions, receive text messages, store names and adresses, and several other mundane chores. I forget the name of the product but I bought one through Bell South, they shipped it to me and added like $75.00 a month to my phone bill for 3 months...I can see the same thing happening with the AOL package. Although I have a great respect for Skroo's opions generally, I think he may be wrong and that it is a good marketing strategy. I don't use AOL (can't stand AOL as a matter of fact), but for the novice user AOL is a good starting point when learning how to use the web.

[skroo]

About 15 years ago Cisco teamed with Bell Telephone and manufactured a keyboard for your telephone that allowed you to conduct banking transactions, receive text messages, store names and adresses, and several other mundane chores. I forget the name of the product but I bought one through Bell South, they shipped it to me and added like $75.00 a month to my phone bill for 3 months...

I think that may be the phone in my bedroom - the AT&T 882. Not sure if it is or not, but it sounds fairly close to what it was intended to do.

And yeah, it sucks as an email terminal.

[Floydr47]

This could possibly be a good thing...the AOLcomp pack could enable low income families to have access to the net when they otherwise could not afford it. It would put one more educational tool in the hands of students from low income families. Or it could be a bad thing....more script kiddies...I think I will shoot myself now, excuse me.

I'm not sure if it was the 882, Skroo. All I remember about it was that it had a flip-up 5" LCD monitor. That was back during my drinking days...I remember very little from then...

[skroo]

I'm not sure if it was the 882, Skroo. All I remember about it was that it had a flip-up 5" LCD monitor. That was back during my drinking days...I remember very little from then...

From your description of the LCD, it doesn't sound like it - the 882 has a fixed-position display. Here's a link to the manual for the 882. Also, I was off-base when I mentioned its email capabilities; it doesn't have any :) I was probably thinking of the Mivo MailStation, which I had to support at one time.

Anyway, back on track...

the AOLcomp pack could enable low income families to have access to the net when they otherwise could not afford it. It would put one more educational tool in the hands of students from low income families.

Agreed, at least as far as getting computers to those who otherwise wouldn't have them goes. However, there's a good possibility this'll be a total albatross for AOL. Here's why:

Almost five years ago, my then-employer decided that the company was going to shift focus onto the Internet Appliance market. Forecasts pointed towards people wanting cheap, low-powered boxes that could be used for surfing the web, reading email, and listening to MP3s. In a way, the predictions were right - this is a huge chunk of what people use their computers (and bandwidth) for now.

The pundits got it wrong in a few key ways, though. People didn't want low-cost IAs, they wanted low-cost computers. Having a device that can send and receive email isn't very useful when the desktop PC can do that and play Quake. While writing a document in Word. And watching a movie. And... You get the idea.

Mind you, that was only for the people likely to buy an IA in the first place - the other thing they didn't get right was the fact that what prevents a lot of people from getting online is the ongoing cost. $20-30/month is a lot when that may be your phone bill, or what you have to eat with for a week. This actually alienated a lot of potential IA purchasers, too - let's say the box sells for $299. People couldn't understand why that price didn't include a year's Internet access.

AOL's in a similar boat. At least they're selling a PC, not an IA - but $300 for a PC that doesn't come with Internet access (that you're obliged to sign up for in order to get the PC) is too much for most of the people who could geniunely use it, and not even on the radar of the people buying Dells.

[astcell]

What about WebTV, what was the downfall of that? And why does AOL think it is not headed the same way?

[skroo]

What about WebTV, what was the downfall of that? And why does AOL think it is not headed the same way?

It's still out there, just that it's now msntv.

[Floydr47]

Thanks for the info, Skroo. No, it wasn't the 882 that I had...the one I had was a seperate unit from the telephone, like I say it's been 15 years, I've been through a lot of toys since then. On the same note though, I have an old AT&T Globalyst 630, 75mHz comp that I got in the same way...it was just added to my phone bill years ago. I know for a while just a few years back SouthWestern Bell was doing the same thing with Compaq Presarios. A friend of mine bought one through the phone company and I believe that he got a year service with MSN in the deal. So the AOL thing is not a new idea.