ATLANTA -
The study, by Synergistics Research Corp. and titled, "Mobile Banking: The Consumer Viewpoint," found that only about one-tenth of the more than 1,000 respondents surveyed have used a mobile device such as a cell phone, PDA/Palm Pilot/BlackBerry/organizer (PDA/organizer), or MP3 for conducting financial activities online.
"This is despite the growing ownership of these mobile devices, particularly cell phones," Synergistics said.
Three-quarters of the respondents own one of these devices, but have not used it for online financial activities.
The company said that to gauge the place of mobile banking in the delivery mix, those who have performed financial activities using a cell phone and those who have used a PDA or other organizer were asked whether they consider this to be a primary, secondary, or emergency method of handling financial activities. Slightly more than one-quarter of the cell phone users say this is their primary method of performing banking transactions, while more than one-third say it is a secondary method and close to four in 10 do so only in an emergency, Synergistics reported.
Among those who have performed financial activities using a PDA or organizer, more than one-third say this is their primary method of performing banking transactions. More than four in ten of the PDA/organizer users say it is a secondary method, and close to one-fifth only use it for banking in an emergency, the company found.
"Although consumer ownership of mobile devices has become more and more widespread, usage of these devices for mobile banking is only just emerging," said Genie M. Driskill, COO of Synergistics. "Providers face a number of challenges in the market that may impact the usage of mobile banking, such as varying technologies and platforms, device functionality and screen size issues, pricing-particularly in the context of minute usage, as well as security. As our results show, users of mobile banking (cell phone or PDA/organizer) currently view this service as a secondary or emergency banking method."
Driskill said that many of the existing market or environmental issues will need to be resolved before mobile banking can entertain significant growth, particularly beyond being a secondary or emergency banking method. "However, the excitement surrounding mobile banking indicates that once existing barriers are overcome, it may entertain wider consumer response, perhaps being spurred by growth in the mobile payments area."
For info: www.synergisticsresearch.com.
