According to Stephen Shiu Yeuk-yuen, chairman, Hkstock.com, the technology will allow users to access real-time stock quotes and place orders via the site's online trading platform by speaking on the phone in English, Cantonese or Putonghua.

The interactive telephony technology has been supplied by Simsen International, the licensee of the telephone-based speech-recognition system provider. Given the high penetration of mobile phones, the voice portal is expected to suit Hong Kong people who often find it difficult to put in an order into computers in the English language.

Consumers still shy away from e-banking
THE much hyped e-banking has seemingly failed to lure people in Thailand though hundreds of millions of baht have already been spent on marketing e-banking services. The vast majority of customers in Thailand continue to prefer walking into brick-and-mortar branches and dealing with tellers, writes The Bangkok Post.

Bankers also think that their brick-and-mortar branches will continue to serve as the main link with their customers. The bankers believe that it will take some more time before more people get used to ATMs, passbook update machines, and phone and Internet banking for routine transactions.

Smaller banks in the country, like Bank of Asia and DBS Thai Danu, on the other hand, are more aggressively opening their new branches and kiosks in high-traffic areas such as shopping malls and supermarkets.

To circumvent the time and money cost involved in opening new branches, banks are increasingly resorting to direct selling. This mode has long been a favoured marketing strategy, particularly with foreign banks, for selling their credit cards and personal credit products.

Domestic banks, like Bank of Asia, are setting up their sales support departments for expanding their retail customer base. They are also hiring temporary staff on one-year contracts for direct selling of the banks' products. Sales pitches are ultimately aimed at bringing a customer to the nearest branch to open an account.

Toshiba, Microsoft to jointly develop LCDs
Taking a cue from the rapid worldwide growth in Internet use and increasing popularity in downloading books via the Internet, the Japanese electronic major, Toshiba, has joined hands with Microsoft Corporation to develop liquid crystal displays for portable electronic devices that can download books from the Internet, reports Reuters.

More than 27 million Japanese-one in every five-had an Internet connection in 1999 and the number is expected to almost triple by 2005. The new display will support the same image quality achieved by digital photography and will aim to optimise Microsoft's ClearType technology for displaying text.

The low-temperature polysilicon LCDs, on the other hand, offer a higher resolution, richer colours and more design flexibility than other LCD technologies.

Toshiba and Microsoft will develop specifications for 7.7-inch colour, low-temperature, polysilicon, thin-film transistor (TFT) LCD panels for electronic books, aiming to develop prototypes of the new panels by the end of this year. The number of components in the LCD module will be reduced by 40 per cent to achieve lower power consumption and higher durability.

The two companies have also proposed to invite other electronics makers to use the new display specifications. However, no time-table has been set for manufacturing portable terminals using the specifications.