The three reasons AOL is choosing PhoneLine over TotalTalk

Three big reasons why what AOL is doing makes sense to me.

First of all, there's the corporate cannibalism issue. As Andy strongly connotes by linking to Time Warner Cable's Digital Phone product's main page, AOL, a unit of Time Warner, was in essence competing with itself. That didn't make any sense to me when TotalTalk was introduced, and it sure doesn't now.

Second, AOL totally didn't know what to do with TotalTalk. Where have all the promotional announcements been? Not exactly front-and-center in our national marketing discourse.

Third, AOL has a built-in and highly loyal IM base- one that thrives even as the flagship AOL service suffers declines. PhoneLine is a way to both acquire, and retain, customers who otherwise might not see any point in doing business with AOL. 

Full disclosure: I am the lead blogger for BBHub, whose publisher, Weblogs, Inc., is owned by AOL.