Remember those Ford commercials where, “Quality was job #1″? That was Ford’s response to the complaints consumers had about all of the domestic cars manufactured. The fit and finish on all of the American cars in the late 70’s and early 80’s was just plain terrible. Ford decided to launch that campaign to try and combat the perception that American cars were junk. Well, times changed and Ford adapted. I have owned two Ford’s since then and I have to say they were great cars/trucks. It makes me wonder how companies like AOL are going to fair when it comes time to adapt. AOL faces some difficulties ahead as broadband internet access becomes cheaper and cheaper with DSL service from people like SBC/Yahoo as cheap as $20 a month. That is less expensive than a dial up account costs from AOL. The “added value” services AOL provides are a joke, as most of us “geeks” know already and have known for some time. As the average internet user becomes more savvy and computer literate generations mature, AOL will soon find itself in a very tight position. Will they be able to adapt? Or, will AOL become a dinosaur and die a quick, sudden death? Personally, I have no love for the company. I used to have an AOL account to test website compatability with their browswer. This proved to be more hassle than it was worth and when it came time to cancel my AOL account, it was like pulling teeth from an angry tiger. I hope for AOL and their employees’ sake that they are able to adapt, but something tells me that they will be left behind.

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 17th, 2005 at 9:33 am and is filed under Help Desk News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.