With them, a stockbroker and customer theoretically will be able to quickly confer on a transaction, customers will call for cabs, sensors will report back vital signs from a sick relative's hospital room and retailers will send out notices when ordered merchandise is ready for pickup. The Internet's not going to be just PCs on desktops anymore. It's going to be wireless and on all the time. Mobile Insights, an information source for the mobile computing and data communications markets, estimates that the worldwide market for instant messaging will grow to 175 million users by 2002. AOL stands tough Currently, AOL is still successfully blocking other IM programs from interacting with its clientele.
Hard feelings abound.
Companies that have developed rival IM programs say they were simply using code publicly posted by AOL itself. AOL says that the code, since removed from Web pages, was intended to help programmers work on Unix-based AIM programs only. It was not supposed to help programs such as MSN Messenger access AIM clients, the company says. Although AOL representatives have agreed to attend meetings on possible standards this month, the company continues to build on its base by entering agreements with others while excluding Microsoft. In August, AOL added 2.5 million potential users to its ranks by striking IM agreements with the national ISPs MindSpring and EarthLink.