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AOL to be Split into 4 Units
unsupported writes "AOL is apparently dividing into four units to provide a clear direction for each. The four divisions are as follows: Audience (Advertising, and AOL IM, Moviefon, Mapquest, Netscape.com), Access (dial-up, highspeed), AOL Europe (for the foreigners), and Digital Services (Premium services, phone and music subscription). "
...... and how is this news?
Seriously. AOL probably already operated this way anyway, so what's the big whoop?
Good quote, too many chars. Seriously, the slashdot 120 char limit sucks!
AOL still has a few more years left in them. Cable and DSL haven't quite become ubiquitous, and there are enough people in the "heartland" who aren't familiar enough with the Internet to know better.
Their new commercials purport to make the Internet better - that's the market AOL has to reach, people who think their software is the Internet.
It doesn't have much longer, though. Education will put AOL to a slow death unless they drastically reform their business to revolve around the things they do get right (like messaging) instead of "access" and "customer support" (both in scare quotes for obvious reasons).
Who really cares how AOL runs their business?
Except maybe the 1000 or so people they'll no doubt layoff with this "corporate restructuring" crap.
No, I did not RTFA because I really don't care.
I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
AOL was marketed as an ISP for non technical people. This justified that added expense. Most families these days have at least one member who know at least a little bit about computing and sees that AOL is not needed. Its cheaper to get access from someone else and add the features you want. I suppose its because the internet has been around long enough for the general public (say 10 years of real viable public access?) so that either the adults have taken an interest or they have kids who know a great deal about it all. Seriously, AOL is just not worth the added expense. This new racket about including free anti-virus and spyware blocking is not going to change anything. Breaking into four main organisation is not the answer either. What they need to do is set their prices competitively and get some innovative content.
The Open Directory Project (ODP) at dmoz.org is the "largest human-edited directory in the world" and is "owned" by AOL since it came from Netscape ... although it's mostly community volunteers helping out, although AOL provides hardware and some staffing assistance.
Hulk SMASH Celiac Disease
EOL stands for "end of life", but that's what we'd all want, right?
Anyway, "AOL" is a brand name, an opaque identifier. European subscribers seem to associate "AOL" with a specific online service provider rather than with the words "America Online", just as they associate "DSL" with "high-speed Internet access provided over the phone line" rather than with the words "digital subscriber line".
TimeWarner is not the problem. The problem is AOL is trying to compete in the exact same space as MSN and will always lose. MSN is able to better integrate into Windows. MSN will always be the first choice on the OS.etc, etc, etc.
AOL needs to learn to carry the fight to a different battleground; basically a neutral ground.
- Make Firefox/Mozilla the default (with MSIE an option)
- Provide OpenOffice on their system.
- Start using a media system that is on multiple systems. The ogg line is certainly a choice as are a number of others.
Then allow customers to run that for about a year. Finally, create a Linux distro for the home user that includes all the above. They can call it AOS. It will enable them to compete.What they need to do, but they will not do it. History simply repeats itself.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
the folks at aol are going to have to face the reality that dialup is just not as relevant as it once was.
there are many ways to connect to the net and bypass their filtered system and filtered content.
their software cannot be controlled (it downloads updates on its own), their model is becoming obsolete, and their subscriber base has always been the un-net-educated.
as users become more sophisticated, they move away from aol because aol is incapable of providing that next step of service.
if tw/aol had any brains they would've combined the tw road runner service with aol from the get-go and then let you switch to earthlink or the other online companies.
by allowing broadband customers the ability to completely bypass the software and connect to the net, tw sealed aol's fate.
Is it 5:30 yet?
First consolidation was "IN". They gobbled up Time warner to become AOL-Time Warner. Then consolidation became "OUT" concept and they were spun off after being blamed for being the loss leader of the group. Now they are splitting into smaller pieces, to merge again in the future.. Story never changes. AOL is the same behemoth despite however many pieces you divide or adjoin it. It is just for a Wall Street only show. Nothing for you and me, the Joe/Jane the customer in it. We are not invited to see the play.
__________
The more I know people, the more I love animals
Although restructuring is a ceo's task to cover someone else's butt or his(traditionally)
This may actually be beneficial to aol. AOL has always been the ISP for the internet newbie, and if the reorganization can help their broadband division actually give good services that are worth paying for, they may stick around.
As of now, their broadband and dial-up services have different aims, and you can not really keep those two together in the same division. AOL has got to step up and deliver a broadband service that gives something for the money you pay them.
They have started with the spyware removal and other neat things that work well for the busy family who does not have time to do that themselves. But they really need to seperate this service from their dial-up service. It is distinctly different in terms of scope. I looked it up because a friend of mine wanted to switch to broadband. He thought that AOL actually offered a broadband connection for $9.99 a month. After I told him what it did, he was still confused and couldn't figure out why someone would pay for that. Of course, he is a little ignorant of the net, but if he can not understand the need for this, a lot of potential user's out there also do not understand what AOL's broadband service is. This may be why AOL needs to seperate its two different services, because I have a feeling lots of ppl here also do not know what their broadband servoce is exactly. Maybe a seperate division will help distinguish what these two entities are exactly.
But in reality, I do not see the purpose of them dividing up into four seperate divisions instead of just the two. I guess this is what happens when corporate america has someone in their elitist circle that they need to protect from losing their 40 hour a week paid solitaire playing job. Or maybe four is the CEO's lucky number....