AOL sellings PCs?

[David Prahl]

from http://money.cnn.com/2003/12/04/technology/aol_cpu.reut/index.htm?cnn=yes...

"NEW YORK (Reuters) - America Online, the online unit of Time Warner Inc., began selling a $299 home computer system Thursday in another attempt to staunch subscriber defection."

"In the third quarter, AOL lost 688,000 subscribers compared to the second quarter. "
And for good reason, too! AOL's connection speeds are appalling (even for dial up), the application is bloated (remember those 1.44 AOL disks?), and the spam is intolerable. My family dropped AOL for broadband cable last summer, and we've never looked back. ZERO spam, no proprietary apps, and T1-like speed.

This $299 system will be built by Systemax, but no specs were given. And of course the buyer is tied into an AOL contract.

What do you think? Will this help AOL rebound?

[toxostoma]

What do you think? Will this help AOL rebound?

Man, I just about hate everything from AOL. Sure it'll help them a little. There are certainly people out there that will find the price attractive... But I think AOL's days are numbered... Broadband is coming on so strong. If you factor in a second phone line plus the cost of dialup, DSL is virtually the same price. Cable modems are a little more expensive, but faster! I think as more and more people realize this, they'll start leaving AOL in droves. It's already happening.

[David Prahl]

And "AOL for Broadband" is just SDSL with a proprietary web portal! If you have AOL for Broadband, every single PC that you want on the network has to have their application installed.