Let's distinguish between two class of customers. Business and Joe & Jane
Shmo consumer.
Business customers will make decisions for all kinds of reasons - price,
service, product options etc.. I chose IBM as my main service because I'm
a "global" company and want local access wherever I am in the world. But I
work with a local Israeli ISP (the biggest one here, but still an ISP) for
my Company's web site, 'cause I want that personalized touch - a human I
can talk to if I encounter problems, someone I can negotiate a deal that
meets my needs. IBM can't do that. The big boys will probably grow the
business market for everyone and ISPs will just benefit - as someone in
another post noted. I doubt Fortune 500s work with ISPs anyway and they
are the one's who will be most impressed by names like AT&T and IBM :)
Now for the consumer side. I am very techno-savvy. If I wasn't, I would
have given up long ago - like all big orgs, IBM's tech support is less than
on the ball (read the hilarious post re AT&T and the MAC for a flavor -
sounds soooooooo familiar, although IBM supoorts MAC!). Between me and
them, we can always figure it out ;) But the Joe and Jane Shmo customers
they try to attract would be in the dark completely. AT&T and IBM may rope
in a few of these temporarily. But after they run into a few problems,
either they will give up on the Internet altogether, or go back to AOL.
Let's face it folks - even with WWW, the Internet is still not ready for
prime time :) The problem has nothing to do with AT&T or IBM - it has
everything to do with SLIP and PPP and TCP and other arcane protocols that
can drive even the most techno-savvy up the wall. When Internet service
become available like TV - turn it on and its there, then the average Joe
and Jane Shmo may perhaps get into it. The Internet today retains alot of
its original flavor as an academic haven and a techno-geek toy.
Fortunately, (as the denizens of this list can attest) it *is* rapidly
becoming a great business-to-business place. But consumers - nah! Please
don't quote the 30 million number :) What I'm talking about is household
penetration - its still in the very few % points and will stay there for a
long time. I would venture that mass consumer acceptance is 5-10 years
away, regardless of AT&T and MCI and IBM. In any case, the ISPs will play
a marginal role in that market IMHO.
Bottom line is, no one needs to lose sleep over AT&T.
Aron Trauring
MAXIMA New Media - "Old friends, new times" Orders: 1-800-231-3070
e-mail: aronst@ibm.net WEB: <a href="<a href="http://www.maxnm.com/">http://www.maxnm.com/</a>">http://www.maxnm.com/</a> (Please Visit :))
U.S:
2472 Broadway, Box 195, New York, NY 10025, Tel: (212) 439-4177, Fax: (212)
439-4188
Israel:
P.O. Box 1195, Kokhav Yair 44864 Israel, Tel: +972-9-494825, Fax: +972-9-494479
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