Microsoft Soft-Pedals Dialup

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Posted by timothy on Saturday January 10, 2004 @08:51AM from the where-the-money-isn't dept.

twitter writes "The NYT reports Bill Gates surrender of dial-up Internet access. 'We stayed in the access business for a while, and then we decided it wasn't for us.' $314 million in advertising yielded $300 million in losses last year." Microsoft's dialup service isn't disappearing, but the company is scaling it back and ending the expensive marketing campaign. This leaves exactly how many big players in the dialup market? Dialup is still the only option in many places.

10 of 278 comments (clear)

Does this include MSN Broadband? by Limburgher · 2004-01-10 08:53 · Score: 4, Funny

I only ask because it offers some of the same performance and reliability features of dialup: Dropouts, poor speed, and an inability to use all necessary ports. . .

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You are not the customer.
yeah, but by theMerovingian · 2004-01-10 08:59 · Score: 3, Funny

what about the fat slob in the butterfly suit?

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"If you think you have things under control, you're not going fast enough." --Mario Andretti
Hey, I use MSN... by Anonymous Coward · 2004-01-10 09:00 · Score: 2, Funny

Hey, I use MSN, and it's been working just FZZZTGLLLBEEEEEEEP####$&(%*$(*%&$(*%& (Carrier Lost)
Money Well Spent. by ackthpt · 2004-01-10 09:01 · Score: 2, Funny

I had no idea Microsoft even had dial-up, I wonder how they spent that marketing money.
"It was on display in the bottom of a locked filing cabinet stuck in a disused lavatory with a sign on the door saying 'Beware the Leopard.'" -- Douglas Adams, H2G2p

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A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
Re:THEY DON" by Anonymous Coward · 2004-01-10 09:05 · Score: 1, Funny

Because they don't show the

You can say that a
Re:Remember... by Anonymous Coward · 2004-01-10 09:14 · Score: 2, Funny

im sure you had a point in there somewhere, but it aludes us normal folk.
Re:$300 Million for Ads ... by Anonymous Coward · 2004-01-10 09:16 · Score: 1, Funny

You missed the hundreds of goofballs dressed up as butterflies dropping plastic butterflies all over the city?
Re:Remember... by porp · 2004-01-10 09:36 · Score: 5, Funny

So you're saying that in 1992 you had a 56k modem? You also must've had a time machine and traveled to the future to buy it. But you still wouldn't be able to use it since no ISPs would've supported the damned thing. Hell, v.34 wasn't around until 1993 or so. And I'm not even sure when 16650A UARTs were first adopted.

porp
Soft Pedals? by securitas · 2004-01-10 10:02 · Score: 2, Funny

Well it's about time Microsoft got Internet users to do something active while sitting in front of our computers! So when does the MSN (r) Stationary Bike (tm) - complete with gel-filled Soft Pedals (tm) for barefoot Internet surfing - go on sale? :)
The word you are looking for is peddles as in "to sell." Soft-peddles = to soft-sell (no Tainted Love here) :)
Re:decentralization of acess is fine by me. by Hythlodaeus · 2004-01-10 10:31 · Score: 5, Funny

Dial-up can move about four bucks' worth of music downstream an hour.

Or by the RIAA's estimation, $20,000.

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For great justice.