AOL will also offer an "unlimited" version for $14.95 per month that will offer unlimited local and long-distance calls to US phone numbers and those in 30 other countries.

A USA Today article quotes AOL Digital Services President John McKinley calling the offering "disruptive," noting that AIM's 80 million younger users of the instant messaging client to drop their regular old telephones in favor of a cell phone (which they all already have) and an AIM number.

The problem with this scenario is AIM's reach.

On Monday's installment of "For Immediate Release," (the podcast I co-host with Neville Hobson), I interviewed my 17-year-old daughter about her communciation habits-habits that will undoubtedly translate into the workplace when she and her generation get out of school and begin their careers. Instant messaging plays a huge role, and she touted the benefits of AIM, the key one being that it's the client all her friends use. Feedback from our non-US listeners was swift. Outside the US, hardly anyone uses AIM; Microsoft's instant messenger is the preferred app in Europe and Canada, according to our listeners.

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