Final answer:
SMTP is becoming the standard protocol for Internet mail applications.
Step-by-step explanation:
The standard protocol for Internet mail applications is SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol). SMTP is responsible for sending and receiving email messages over a network.
Email clients such as Microsoft Outlook, and Apple Mail use SMTP to send emails from the user's device to the email server. Once the email is sent, the recipient's email client retrieves the email using a different protocol, such as POP (Post Office Protocol) or IMAP (Internet Message Access Protocol).
While both POP and IMAP are commonly used for retrieving emails, IMAP is increasingly becoming the standard choice for its ability to synchronize emails across multiple devices and maintain a copy of emails on the server. Therefore, the correct answer to the question is IMAP.