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COMPUTING

Free Internet access to explode in 2000

January 4, 2000
Web posted at: 10:36 a.m. EST (1536 GMT)

by David Legard

From...
IDG.net

(IDG) -- Internet stock corrections, the death of pure-play "dot.coms" and an explosion of free Net access services are the main predictions for 2000 made by International Data Corp. (IDC) Senior Vice President Frank Gens.

In the market research company's Fifth Annual Predictions report published last week, Gens' predictions for key trends, strategies, and events likely to occur in the coming year are as follows:

Gens also predicted the demise of companies that exist solely on the Web. Customers live in the real world as much as in the virtual one, which will force pure-play Internet firms to step up their bricks-and-mortar presence, he said.

The smart companies will put network effects to work in their business models, radically expanding their electronic channels, and becoming channels for others, according to Gens. Indirect channels will make a huge comeback, with growth in online shopping engines, virtual malls, digital marketplaces and affiliate marketing, he said. Even the head of Dell, Michael Dell, the poster child for direct marketing on the 'Net, will embrace the new breed of e-channels, according to Gens.

  MESSAGE BOARD
Managing the net
 
In the area of technology developments, Gens' predictions included the following:

  • Broadband will account for more than 1 in 10 online households in the U.S. by the end of this year -- about 2.5 times the number in 1999;

  • 38 percent of U.S. households with two or more PCs will also have a home LAN; and

  • eWallets for wired consumers will reach critical mass just in time for the 2000 holiday season.

Gens also offered a grab-bag of miscellaneous predictions:

  • Microsoft will be broken up -- either by itself or by the Department of Justice in the wake of the current antitrust trial against the software giant.

  • Still more U.S. presidential candidates will seek credit for the Internet and e-commerce boom, despite the flak that U.S. Vice President Al Gore received over his Net claims last year. Unfortunately, according to Gens, the candidates will do so by proposing new legislation and regulation.

  • Celebrity chief executive officers (CEOs) will jump to dot.com companies. Wealthy middle-aged CEOs will look for new challenges in running Internet startups, with Scott McNealy of Sun Microsystems and Larry Ellison of Oracle being likely candidates for a move.

  • Many Fortune 1,000 businesses will still bungle their path to becoming dot.com operations. Despite the many very visible examples about how not to run an Internet business, many Fortune 1,000 companies will still struggle getting their online initiatives to work. Expect a lot of vice presidents and presidents of Internet divisions to be fired, Gens said.


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