UNITED ONLINE KEYS IN TO MACS.Byline: Brent Brent, outer borough (1991 pop. 226,100) of Greater London, SE England. The area is a rail and industrial center. Its manufactures include automobile parts, clocks and watches, and electrical equipment. Hopkins Hopkins, city (1990 pop. 16,534), Hennepin co., SE Minn., a suburb of Minneapolis; inc. as West Minneapolis 1893, name changed 1928. The city manufactures machinery, computer and electronic parts, steel products, air pollution equipment, ophthalmic lenses, tools, Staff Writer WESTLAKE VILLAGE - Eyeing a market of millions, United Online Inc. introduced its Juno software for Macintosh on Monday. The value-priced Internet service provider Internet service provider (ISP) Company that provides Internet connections and services to individuals and organizations. For a monthly fee, ISPs provide computer users with a connection to their site (see data transmission), as well as a log-in name and password. has been PC-only for its eight-year history, but customer demand led it to develop Juno Platinum for Apple's Macintosh OS X. With more than 10 million Mac users already online, United Online sees them as good ground for growth. ``There are 6,000 other ISPs out there, and while I can't say that there's absolutely no one doing this, no major players are doing it,'' said Brian Woods, United Online's executive vice president and chief marketing officer. ``It's something we always knew we wanted to do, but it was just a matter of priorities. It's a seminal seminal /sem·i·nal/ (sem´i-n'l) pertaining to semen or to a seed. sem·i·nal adj. Of, relating to, containing, or conveying semen or seed. point for us.'' Subscribers to the service will pay $9.95 per month for dial-up access hot Dial-up access is a form of Internet access via telephone line. The client uses a modem connected to a computer and a telephone line to dial into an Internet service provider's (ISP) node to establish a modem-to-modem link, which is then routed to the Internet. , joining the ISP's 2.2 million paid subscribers. Executives are discussing plans to adapt the service for its paid NetZero customers as well. The firm's three million free users, who run a different software package that streams constant advertising, will not have a chance to log on from Macs. ``This was the quickest way to get to market,'' Woods said. ``The free service requires a lot more built into the client, with ad caching caching - cache and management. Originally, when we wanted to get into Macs, we were free only. As we've moved more and more into value-priced, we could get a Mac service out there much more quickly.'' United Online's predecessors, NetZero and Juno, considered adding the service for years, but got bogged down both in a switch to a pay-subscription base and their merger in 2001. ``We've been turning away business at the door for the last few years by not offering this service,'' Woods said. ``We certainly saw it as an opportunity. In the marketing side of the business, all the creative people are on Macs, so I knew there were people out there who needed this.'' The firm has no immediate plans to move into the free realm, however. ``If Mac users want access, I'd take the same approach,'' said Ned Zachar, director of telecommunications services In telecommunication, the term telecommunications service has the following meanings: 1. Any service provided by a telecommunication provider. 2. research for investment bank Thomas Weisel Partners Thomas Weisel Partners Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: TWPG), often shortened to just TWP or TWeisel, is a U.S. middle-market and growth focused investment banking firm based in San Francisco, California. . ``Since they can charge, why not? There's no reason not to do it, since it hasn't been offered before.'' With United Online adding subscribers at a rate of 100,000 to 200,000 each quarter for the last year and a half, Zachar noted that Mac users would have to sign on in force to make a major impact along with PC customers. But while the latter dominate the market - Mac enthusiasts account for around 3 percent of the total computing computing - computer scene - the Apple fans have other things going for them. A survey conducted last year by Nielsen/NetRatings shows a higher percentage of them are online users, 8.2 percent of the overall online community. The survey also found them to have higher educational levels and, more importantly for providers, higher income levels. ``The market-share numbers are in the 3 percent to 4 percent range,'' said Jim Dalrymple, the online editor for Macworld.com, a San Francisco- based online trade magazine. ``But that's still millions of users, so if there's no one in the market, they can take advantage of the ones who want to use it.'' |
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