The internet isn’t all that, say 13.64 million homes
So there are 31 million homes in the USA without internet access. Actually, there are more homes than that, but these homes in particular have no plans to get online in the next 12 months, according to a recent survey.
I’m gonna put on my Richard Dawson hat for a moment and ask what you think the top reasons for this is.
Who here thinks it’s a question of availability? Well, since this is access of any kind, and dial up still exists, somewhere, you’re wrong. Only 3% of the respondents gave this as a reason.
OK, then it’s got to be affordability of ‘net access, right? Well, while 8% said they couldn’t afford ISP fees, a larger 14% couldn’t afford a computer.
It turns out the number one reason people aren’t going online if they haven’t already, with a score of 44%, is that the internet isn’t very interesting.
Wuzzah?
I remember my dad buying his first computer in the late ’90s simply because there were URLs showing up at the end of car commercials and he thought he might have been missing out on something - that’s right, more advertising was a killer app once upon a time. It seems that the hold outs have higher standards.
Hmmm, maybe DRM-free music downloads from EMI will be the lure that finally brings ‘em in. (What, it’s not like I was going to spend a whole post echoing what everyone else was saying about EMI, but I had to participate somehow…)
So when 8 of the top 10 song downloads on Yahoo Music are from the same artist, does that mean that 1) the act is the hottest thing ever, 2) sales volume at Yahoo’s a bit on the low side and anyone can be a bestselling artist, or 3) the ranking code needs a bit of a tweak?