Context Magazine: Speech recognition; phones with Web browsers based on the Wireless Application Protocol, or WAP; Internet-based telephone calls; interactive television; and online bill payment have been touted for years—some for more than a decade—as having the potential to revolutionize business by giving consumers new ways to purchase goods, gather information, and get service. Yet the combined effect of the technologies has so far been almost imperceptible. Their promoters could be accused of, in effect, hanging out signs promising: "All Your Problems Solved...Tomorrow." It’s not that these technologies don’t hold promise. Most hold enormous promise. It’s just that the predictions about when they will start to fulfill that promise have been wildly optimistic. (2001-06-03)