Mobile Banking Updates - May 23

Has the iPhone lost its cool?
"Did Google just turn the tables on Apple? Having entered the mobile software market late with its Android offering, Google's initial efforts were a pale imitation of the iPhone OS, a clunky user experience on sub-par handsets. Fast forward to 2010. Suddenly, Google Android is winning over the hearts and minds of technologists and signing up 100,000 converts a day. That raises the question: Is the iPhone losing its sheen?"

Top Mobile Banking Users? Android Phone Owners
"A new Javelin Strategy & Research report issued today – 2010 Mobile Payments – Crossing the Chasm: Industry Models Battle to Bridge the Gap – finds that Android phone users are the most likely mobile phone owners to have logged into their bank in the last seven days, followed by iPhone users. The on-the-go functionality of smartphones is revolutionizing how consumers make financial transactions – or want to. Up to one-in-five consumers have expressed interest in using their mobile device to make payments; Javelin expects a sharp rise in that demand over the next few years. To meet that mandate and boost the currently stalled mobile payments market, diverse stakeholders must work together to identify and shape effective business models and technologies and build the value proposition for both consumers and merchants."

Monitise: 20m mobile banking actions in six months
"Monitise's Mobile Money Manager platform provides mobile banking services to 240 banks in the UK and the US. It says its apps are now being used at the rate of a million a week. These apps run on iPhone, Blackberry and Nokia, and the company is also working on an application for handsets using Google’s Android software."

Obopay, YES Bank introduce mobile banking services
"Obopay, a mobile payment technology provider, has partnered with YES Bank and Nokia for the Commercial Pilot Launch of mobile banking services in Pune. This service is called Mobile Money Services by YES Bank, said a press note here. Obopay provides the technology platform which enables mobile money transaction services. The commercial pilot was launched in Pune in late February. Obopay is also responsible for the entire back-end work and has been able to enroll a significant number of Pune’s population, as well as sign up a substantial number of merchants and agents since then, the note said."

Mobile Banking Subscriber Numbers Doubling Every Year
"New forecasts from ABI Research indicate that in 2015 about 407 million people worldwide will carry out financial transactions with their banks using their mobile phones. Of those, some 66 million will be in North America.

According to senior analyst Mark Beccue, however, 'It’s not the North American market that is moving fastest to mobile banking: that crown goes to the Asia-Pacific region, which accounted for the lion’s share of the world’s 52.2 million mobile banking subscribers in 2009. The global number of subscribers more than doubled between 2008 and 2009, and is expected to almost double again in 2010. This growth can be seen everywhere, but Asia – led by India – is pushing it particularly hard.'”