Mobile banking: coming to a cell phone near you
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Check balance before debiting
Despite its bumbling start in the late 1990s, mobile banking, according to one expert, is still in its infancy. Jim Bruene, editor and founder of the Online Banking Report, says its time has come, but it could take 10 years to really be adopted.

"It's a great supplement to online banking," he says. "But there are all those caveats -- how much data can be displayed, how easy is it to navigate, how sure am I that I'm pressing the right buttons? All that means cell phone banking won't overtake online banking in any foreseeable time frame.

"Mobile banking won't replace the Web site. You won't set up a new payee on the phone; you're not going to do data entry on a mobile phone; you'd probably still do most of that on your Web-based browser. If you're idle at the airport and realize you forgot to pay a bill, you can dial it up on the phone and take care of it. It's not a killer application, but it adds to the convenience of online banking. Young people may have a different perspective."

iPhone Big screens similar to the ones on Apple iPhones will be needed to do online banking. Click on image for larger version.

Bruene says he believes that balance inquiry will be, by far, the most popular feature, with debit card users checking their balances before making purchases.

Bruene talks about three different ways to access mobile banking. What he calls "true mobile banking" will be a downloadable version that will place an icon on the desktop and eliminate having to open a browser. Citibank's mobile banking will be a downloadable application. Wachovia's, on the other hand, will require firing up your browser. The third way would involve text messages.

As Bruene notes, the size of the typical cell phone screen could be a drawback for many people. If cell phones are really to become the portable computer of the future, perhaps more manufacturers will gravitate to a design similar to Apple's iPhone.

"You'll see form factors like iPhone that will provide you with information without you going blind," says Dan Schatt, senior retail banking analyst at Celent.

"A lot of people say it's great to have access, but if the phone is clunky and the screen is small, what good is it? This will run on the Mac operating system, which people may find a more user-friendly way to access and move around on the Internet.

"The phone doesn't have a keyboard; it appears when needed. You can hold the phone vertically or horizontally and the entire phone becomes a screen, so the screen is much larger than any other phone."