Digital postage stamps
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Digital postage stamps
An American company is now selling postage over the Internet. Palo Alto-based E-Stamp is partnering Francotyp-Postalia (of Germany) in a new venture aimed at the digital postage market. Its first product is called E-Stamp Internet Postage v1.0 and is a software and hardware solution that means customers can easily purchase postage for the Internet. Customers buy the postage online using a credit card. Postage is then downloaded and secured in the E-Stamp Security device, an electronic vault that connects to the printer port on the customer's PC. Asian librarians need not anticipate using the digital postage too soon, though. E-Stamp will almost certainly be introduced in Europe and North America long before it reaches Asia, but at least it may offer us a glimpse of the future.
