Schwab set to launch wireless trading
By Reuters
Special to CNET News.com
August 19, 1999, 4:05 p.m. PT
LOS ANGELES--Charles Schwab, the largest U.S. discount and Internet brokerage, said today it will roll out a new wireless trading service to let customers use pagers, mobile phones, and hand-held computers to trade stocks.
With the new service, Schwab will go up against rivals such as Discover Brokerage, a unit of Morgan Stanley Dean Witter, and the brokerage arm of mutual fund company Fidelity Investments, which already offer on-the-go trading.
San Francisco-based Schwab said it planned to offer the new service by year's end to "active" customers who trade more than 48 times a year.
"The whole wireless platform is moving so fast, it's almost moving faster than the Web," said Tracey Gordon, a Schwab spokeswoman.
Gordon did not reveal what features would be offered over the service or how much it would cost, saying only the company would be "very competitive."
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Schwab said it was partnering with Aether Technologies, a closely held provider of wireless products and services, to develop the new service. Aether is also Discover's partner in its wireless trading and information service.
With wireless fees at other brokerages ranging from $30 to $69 a month, and with wireless devices carrying price tags of up to several hundred dollars, the service is expected to appeal mainly to die-hard traders with hefty portfolios.
"The whole wireless deal, at least in the short term, is for active traders who want to keep in touch with their positions,'' said Dan Burke, senior brokerage analyst with Internet research firm Gomez Advisors.
But Schwab expects trading to be the tip of the iceberg. It reasons that as prices for cell phones, pagers, and other gadgets fall, more people will use them to keep abreast of the market and their finances.
"There's a lot of buzz around [wireless trading], but it hasn't expanded beyond a core of tech-savvy investors," Gordon said. "While trading gets the attention, it's access to information that is the real story."
Schwab also announced a new research and development unit under its technology group to develop wireless applications. And it said it was joining the Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) Forum, a group of major communications and computer companies, including AT&T and Microsoft, which has set standards for data service. |
