Now here's an area that could benefit from the Internet. I don't mean the shrink-wrapped programs (although packaged software constitutes a large proportion of CompuServe's Shopping Mall sales). I'm referring to the software itself. Why hire a courier to transport a large box containing 15 Word for Windows disks and three large manuals, when the stuff could be sent across the Net in half an hour? And it can bypass Customs & Excise and so end up a lot cheaper.
In fact, there is now a move towards distributing software in this way. Companies such as Sun and Oracle are looking at the idea of software houses holding their applications online. Having dialled in and uploaded their credit card details, customers will then be given access to the appropriate program's file directory. At which point, they simply download. What sort of dent this makes in the multi-billion pound world shrink-wrap market remains to be seen.
One fly in the ointment: if people start to regularly entrust their credit card details to the Internet, isn't some enterprising crook going to attempt to get at them? Exactly how secure is the system?