Next - Mobile banking a call away

Nearly a decade ago banks and consultants were falling over themselves to extol the virtues of banking applications on mobile phones. With uptake of internet banking services skyrocketing, the assumption was that taking the same applications to mobile phones would be even more appealing, and so hundreds of thousands of dollars were spent on trials of WAP-based applications. Unfortunately no one bothered to check whether consumers knew how to use their handsets to access web applications, or even whether their handsets were capable of loading web pages in the first place. Not to mention the fact that browsing speeds back then made for a terrible user experience.

Older and wiser perhaps, banks are now making tentative steps back into mobile banking. The technologies may not have changed, but backers are hoping that networks speeds and customer acceptance have. Time will tell, but in the meantime you can read my story for Next here.