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In an attempt to spur interest in its struggling electronic mail system, the Western Union Corporation said yesterday that users would soon be able to converse on their computers, rather than merely send electronic letters
Under the new system, a message will appear on a recipient's screen as the sender is typing it - unless the recipient is using the computer terminal for another purpose Until now, messages have been stored in computer memory until the recipient checked to see if there was any message there, making communication cumbersome
Western Union also announced that it had agreed to buy Personal Computers from the International Business Machines Corporation and to package them with Western Union communications software The package will then be sold to companies wanting to sign up for Western Union's electronic mail system, called Easylink
Western Union began offering Easylink two years ago Although it holds the top spot in electronic mail, with an estimated 25 percent of the business, the market remains much smaller than it or any of the other contenders in the field, such as the MCI Corporation or the GTE Corporation, had anticipated Customers have complained that the systems are too complicated, and only recently has it been possible for people using different manufacturers' computers or terminals to communicate
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