Raining On The Mobile Banking Parade

Psst — have you heard? Mobile banking is the next killer application. While early pioneers with first-generation mobile platforms got burned back in 2000 with low consumer adoption and not-ready-for-prime-time technology, this time is going to be different! Well, at least that's what the marketplace hype would have you believe: Mobile platform vendors and carriers want you to think that the time for mobile banking is now. Forrester hasn't seen buzz like this since aggregation vendors caused a panic among financial firms back in 1999. But here we are again. Same hype, different topic. We hate to rain on this parade, but here's the reality: Today's consumers still aren't very interested in mobile banking. Before putting a mobile offering at the head of the development queue, eBusiness banking execs should sit patiently on the sidelines and wait to see if the early leaders succeed in growing adoption and delivering a solid ROI.