Thousands of services ranging from Facebook to eBay have their own applications tailored to several different mobile phone handsets, and according to Mariusz Glinski, head of electronic banking at Raiffeisen Bank in Poland, banks should have the same facilities available to their customers.
‘M-banking’ or mobile banking is all well and good, but with so many different mobile interfaces, standards and layouts, these services can look good on one phone but perform frustratingly badly on another.
Poland’s Raiffeisen Bank has brought out ‘VIP Mobile’, a mobile phone app with a user interface designed specifically for smart phones with Symbian and Windows Mobile operating systems.
This application will give mobile-banking customers more of the functionality that was once tied to internet transactions and previously not possible over a mobile handset.
“If we are serious about m-banking, we have to accept that a ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach to mobile applications will only take us so far in today’s market,” said Glinski.
“There is a lack of standards in a mobile world with tens of operating systems, user interfaces, internet browsers, screens and methods of data entry.
“To create truly usable applications, we must take into account the characteristics of each type of mobile device,” Glinski said.
By Marie Boran
Pictured: the VIP Mobile app gives mobile-banking customers added functionality
