MICHAEL POWELL'S REVIEW OF THE AO INNOVATION SUMMIT
A Few Other Comments Too... AOL LostLand

Older post but of interest for those that didn't read Powell's review of the AlwaysOn conference yet. Overall, I enjoyed most of the seminars and the people that I met a couple weeks ago.

One memory that sticks out was during the "Battle for the E-Home" seminar. Allen Delattre from Accenture moderated it with Lisa Hook (President, AOL Broadband), Dick Lampman (SVP of Research, HP Labs), Curt Nichols (VP and Director of Digital Home Sector, Intel Capital), Ed Fisher (SVP of Product Planning, Gateway), and Radha Basu (Chairman & CEO, SupportSoft).

During the seminar, Lisa Hook started to discuss her user base to help us realize the average American Internet consumer. She brought up some amusing stories about how people didn't even know how to install the AOL program and revealed some of their customer service calls they received. One person actually put the AOL CD in their stereo system and others just didn't know the basics about computers and especially the Internet.

Was she bragging that her average consumer is a complete techno-idiot? Wasn't she just reinforcing the notion that the typical AOL user is Luddite? If this is her base, how does she expect to shift and transition this core user group into the broadband world? Especially on the heels of cable's broadband offering. And if AOL's base gains more knowledge about computers and the Internet, why would they transition into AOL's broadband product versus other providers? What services and products do they have that differentiate them and justify a higher monthly price?

I might be overreacting, but from Lisa Hook's response I don't think she knows what to do. I think AOL is in trouble.