Why The iPhone Doesn’t Matter For Mobile Banking
Posted by George Pasley on January 16, 2008
Lately, there has been plenty of news of banks providing iPhone optimized mobile banking. iPhone users can go to a bank site, such as Bank of America, and be re-directed to a site with a special iPhone display.
While this sounds good on the surface, if I owned an iPhone, I’d be ticked. The whole point of browsing the Internet on an iPhone is to have the same experience as sitting at a desktop or laptop. Why would an iPhone user want a watered down version of their mobile banking? That just defeats the purpose of using an iPhone.
I happen to have the new LG Voyager from Verizon and I use Bank of America. My mobile banking experience is completely different from an iPhone user. Voyager, Blackberry, Treo, etc. owners aren’t lucky enough to have a special, optimized site for their phone.
Also, Bank of America announced that they have 500,000 mobile banking users (2.5% of total online banking users). If the different phone types were broken down, which phone would be the most popular? My bet is on one of the Blackberry variants. The reason is their mobile users most likely have a PDA type phone that is paid for by their employer.
I don’t know about you, but I see way more Blackberries than iPhones. Here at our bank, everyone with a company phone and data plan has a Blackberry. Those that got a data plan on their own mostly have Verizon. I’ve heard one person talk about getting an iPhone. I also know of one manager (who also has a company issued Blackberry) that got an iTouch for Christmas. He just uses the wifi on it when possible.
I say all this to just emphasize that the iPhone shouldn’t really figure into your plans for mobile banking. The iPhone demographic is just a small slice of the pie. Most people aren’t going to spend $400 on a cell phone or even have a data plan.
Just take a look around your bank or credit union and see what type of phone your co-workers have. That should give you a close resemblance of the general market base. The iPhone will help usher in new and better cell phones. But as the browser experience on cell phones gets better, I doubt people will always want watered down versions of websites.
KP said
I disagree that the iPhone shouldn’t figure in an approach to mobile banking – of course it should. I think maybe your confusing the issue with sites that build specifically for the iPhone… Any approach to mobile banking through the web (not applications) should take the approach of progressive enhancement – just as you do on the web – which allows you to exploit the capabilities of newer user agents and devices where supported.
I also don’t think that looking at the types of devices within in your own business is the best indicator of what your customer base might be using…
George Pasley said
KP,
The iPhone matters about as much as the Blackberry Pearl, the Motorola Razr or any other phone. All I’m saying is you shouldn’t base your strategy on nor just cater to the iPhone. Now don’t take this as me disliking the iPhone. I’m a big Apple fan and happen to have a MacBook , two iPods, and an iTunes library of over 14,000 songs. In fact, if Verizon had signed that deal with Apple instead of AT&T I’d be an iPhone owner also.
But, banks and credit unions just need to make sure the solution they eventually get works on all phones, or at least a majority. If you think about it, the iPhone would probably be the least used device for most banks. Most banks and credit unions fall under the 2 billion in assets threshold. On average, I’d say that most of these FIs have an average of 10,000 active online banking users, and that’s being generous. If you compare B of A’s numbers (2.5% of online users use mobile channel), then we’re talking 250 users for mobile. Or even better, lets say that 15% of the customers have a data plan, which would be 1500. How many would you wager have an iPhone in relation to any other phone? As a side note, I’m sure you heard that Wachovia and SunTrust announced their mobile banking product. According to Wachovia’s and SunTrust’s site, even though AT&T wireless customers can use their new product, iPhone users have to use WAP. The mobile wallet is not certified for the iPhone.
Now, the techie in me wishes that cell phone vendors would standardize on a specific browser. Even having 5 standard browsers would be good. That would go the farthest in helping mobile banking, especially the WAP channel.
As for looking at your co-workers, maybe I’m spoiled in that we have 1000 employees in our holding company. But from what I’ve seen and asked, the numbers here come very close to industry averages in cell phone ownership and use.
Scott said
George,
[This note is solely focused on the iPhone; leaving other devices out of the conversation to focus on a couple key points]
As an owner of an iPhone, I can tell you that you that the point of using one is certainly not to emulate the desktop and laptop experience. Not by a long stretch.
No, the real point is to get the most of out of the experience and optimize the experience for the context of usage. I don’t need a full-blown online banking experience for the iPhone. Browsing desktop versions of websites on the iPhone actually kind of sucks. You have to zoom in and zoom out to maneuver around the page. It’s ok in some instances, but generally is not an optimal way to browse the web.
Instead, I’ve seen many websites create iPhone optimized versions of their websites. When done right, the experience is amazing. Facebook has an iPhone version of their site. It rocks. It’s slick and really well thought out and takes advantage of Apple’s WebApps development platform. I’ve looked BofA’s iPhone app. I’m not a customer, so I can’t use it. But you can click to get the regular version of the site – so in your case, you could emulate that desktop/laptop experience… but I’m telling you, you don’t want to!
Thanks for the thought-provoking piece.
Scott
Joe Raeburn said
If you want to see what can be done by focusing on the experiance (as Scott says), look here http://www.kiwibank.co.nz/mobile
harry said
obviously you’re jealous of us iphone users. you’ll have one too eventually.
George Pasley said
Harry,
Actually, I’ve had one for over a month now. Jealousy has nothing to do with it. I’m a big Apple fan and have a number of their products. I just don’t think that banks/credit unions should plan their mobile strategy around their customers having an iPhone. Bank of America, who has over 1 million mobile banking users, isn’t putting all their eggs in the mobile browser basket. Within 6 months, you’ll hear about a SMS and/or mobile app solution. Especially since they’ve invested in mFoundry.
Also, I do have a BofA account, and accessing it on my iPhone is only slightly better than using my old LG Voyager.