Charles Schwab today began offering wireless trading, joining a large crowd of Web brokers that allow clients to buy and sell securities over wireless devices.
As previously reported, the San
Francisco-based brokerage firm will offer its PocketBroker service through wireless handheld devices made by Palm, the Palm IIIx and Palm Vx. In the future, the company plans to allow its customers to trade over Internet-ready cell phones and "Blackberry" devices made by Research in Motion.
Quick & Reilly today also began offering wireless trading over devices including several Palm models, Nokia cell phones and RIM's Blackberry devices. The company is offering the services through an alliance with w-Trade Technologies, a company that helps bring e-tailers as well as online banks and brokerages onto the airwaves.
While Schwab's move comes more than a year after Fidelity Investments (and
at least several months after other rivals) began offering wireless services,
wireless trading has yet to make a serious mark in the industry. Still, industry watchers believe that
online brokers must offer the service, which is likely to eventually become
a norm.
There were 220 million digital wireless phone subscribers worldwide in 1998
and 150 million Internet users, a Yankee Group study estimates. In about
four years, there will be more than half a billion Internet accounts and
roughly 1 billion digital wireless phone subscriptions. Internet-enabled
"smart phones" are expected to have 48 million users worldwide by 2002 and
204 million by 2005, the research firm reported.
All things wireless, including shopping or trading, are becoming a part of many e-commerce firms' marketing plans. Over the past
year, Morgan Stanley Dean Witter's Discover Brokerage, DLJ Direct and
Ameritrade began offering wireless services. E*Trade, Suretrade and others followed soon with similar services.
Schwab's PocketBroker was co-developed by Aether Systems, a company that
designs wireless data products and services.
The service includes access to real-time quotes, market summaries and equity trading, among other trading services.
Schwab also plans to offer wireless trading in foreign markets, including
Hong Kong, Japan and the United Kingdom.
"Unlike the U.S., where access to PCs is nearly ubiquitous, many countries
rely much more heavily on wireless technology to provide the backbone for
Internet access," Dawn Lepore, Schwab's chief information officer, said in
a statement.
Schwab said it currently has 3.7 million active online accounts with $418
billion in customer assets.
Join the conversation
Comment replyThe posting of advertisements, profanity, or personal attacks is prohibited. Click here to review our Terms of Use.
Google creates an animated doodle that features a boy, a girl, Google's search engine, and a jump rope. But might there be darker, more analytical, more troubling interpretations to this tale?
The Silicon Valley online payments startup grew by 1,000 percent last year and is hopeful it can repeat that level of growth this year. To do that, it's had to move away from its early friends-and-family roots and embrace small businesses.
Chamtech's spray-on antenna uses a nano material to provide a low-power boost to antenna range. The wireless-in-a-can product may some day bring an end to unsightly cell towers.
EnerG2 opens a plant to make an engineered carbon that will improve performance of energy storage devices and make storage for start-stop hybrid cars less expensive.
Unwired Web
Join the conversation