TIME EUROPE
JANUARY 31, 2000 VOL. 155 NO. 4
Techwatch
ONLINE BANKING
Taking Account of Customer Service
Ingram Pinn for TIME |
If the American experience is anything to go by, European online banks can't count on a growth in business unless they heed the mistakes of their U.S. counterparts, according to tech consultancy Datamonitor. A new U.S. study shows that although 3.2 million people opened online bank accounts between July '98 and July '99, another 3.1 million stopped using their accounts. Fifty percent of the people who abandoned e-banking in the U.S. said they found the sites too complicated or were unhappy with customer service. European banks are now aggressively entering the Internet market. Argenteria in Spain announced the launch of an e-bank for Spanish-speaking consumers called Uno-e, and Lloyds TSB said it will launch a European Internet initiative. They will compete with a growing number of virtual banks. In its report on e-banking in Europe, Datamonitor is predicting that the number of European Internet banking customers will grow from 4.5 million in 1999 to over 21 million by 2004--but only if online services are simple and customer-friendly and offer new features such as balance alerts to mobile phones.
RADIO
The Wireless Age
Rural people in Sri Lanka can now search the Web--by radio. The community station in Kothmale, a village located in Mavathura, east of the capital Colombo, broadcasts a live one-hour program every day, during which the hosts browse the Internet at the request of listeners, who either phone or write in their inquiries. The station's Web surfers then read and interpret the results of their research. The program is intended to provide Internet access to villagers who do not have computers and may not be able to speak English.
E-COMMERCE
Pot of Gold?
Rainbow E-commerce (www.rainbowecom.com), a U.K. start-up that launched last week, aims to make selling over the Internet easy. Geared specifically toward fledgling Netrepreneurs, the firm offers such basics as website creation ($30 a site) and more sophisticated services that include facilities for credit card payment, e-mail ordering and order management (around $160 a month). Customers must handle delivery themselves.
ONLINE TRADING
Paradigm Shift
According to Dataquest, by 2003 at least 20% of all securities traded by private investors in Asia Pacific markets will be traded online. Asian brokers will shift their retail services to the Internet over the next five years, as Web demand increases.
SITE SEEING
Are editors next? Forget those high salaries and blow-dried manes--the next generation of newscasters is going digital. A cyberbabe named Ananova (www.ananova.com) will soon put a synthesized voice and animated face on news bulletins via the Net. Ananova's creators predict the green-haired interface will appear on cell phones and alarm clocks as well as desktop monitors.
Need info on air travel facilities for the disabled? Check out Everybody's Airline Direct-ory (www.everybody.co.uk) for tips on everything from oxygen to food to emergency procedures in Braille on airlines worldwide.
WHAT'S NEXT
Transmeta, a secretive Silicon Valley start-up whose team includes Linus Torvalds, creator of the Linux operating system, unveiled its Crusoe family of microprocessors for mobile Web pads and light Internet computers. Crusoe replaces the millions of transistors used on X86 microprocessors with software. The advantage for mobile devices is that the processor burns less power, meaning batteries have more juice. Crusoe microprocessors are also easier to cool, eliminating fans and allowing portable devices to get smaller and lighter. Transmeta claims its technology will herald the introduction of ultra-light mobile PCs equipped with the Windows operating system and Microsoft Office applications that will operate on a single battery charge for up to a full working day. Crusoe-based Internet devices such as Web pads will also be able to use the Mobile Linux operating system, removing the need for an expensive hard disk drive. Giant Intel and other chipmakers are also working on new microprocessors for Internet-enabled appliances, but they may well end up just following in Crusoe's footsteps.
This edition's table of contents
TIME Europe home
More stories from TIME Europe and related links
E-mail us at mail@timeatlantic.com
COPYRIGHT © 2000 TIME INC. NEW MEDIA
|
|
|
