Apps vs Mobile Browsers

8/3/2019 Apps vs Mobile Browsers

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ESCAN NEWSLETTER AUGUST 20116

PAYMENT SYSTEMS

Whats the best way to serve members

in a mobile world?

Check account balance, find a branch, or transfer

funds. Compare rates. Make a payment or cash a

check. For just about any financial need, theres

a mobile banking app or a website to hold in thepalm of your hand.

Mobile banking, particularly via smartphone, is

quickly moving to the center of the online ecosys-

tem. Thirty-five percent of Americans own smart-

phones, and most mobile subscribers will be carrying

a smartphone by the end of 2011. Smartphone sales

are projected to more than triple by 2012, to well

over 500 million owner-users worldwide.

Customers have long been able to access their

accounts, even from less-powerful feature phones,

notes Tim Murphy, manager of mobile monitoring

and testing at Keynote Systems, writing in Bank Tech-nology News. But the iPhone and the Apple App Store

unleashed an explosion of mobile computing power

and connectivity, opening the door to impressive

functionality and convenience.

The rise of smartphones and appsnow no lon-

ger the exclusive domain of Applealso introduced

the age of mobile Web browsing. With every smart-

phone platform now supporting a Web browser, and

touch screens maximizing the viewable area, virtually

the entire Internet is now the purview of handheld

devices. But unlike the desktop, mobile users have

two major avenues to access online content: apps

and Web browsers.

Its not as simple as in the early days of the desk-

top Web, when the only choice was how fancy to

make a website. Nor is todays environment com

parable to the early iPhone days, when apps were abadge of the forward-thinking techno-savvy. Today

apps arent quite the status symbol they used to

be, but theyve also grown beyond their novelty to

become useful tools for end users. At the same time

the mobile Web has become at least as important, or

more so, in the world of mobile banking.

So the question of the moment isapp, website

or both? Consider the following:

Apps have the coolness factor but require mul-

tiple builds and maintenance for each platform.

Websites may offer the potential to build once for

all platforms, but an overabundance of devices andsoftware still creates challenges.

A hybrid approach combining apps and websites

is the gold standard, but this strategy is expensive

and labor-intensive.

Consumer preferencesHow do you arrive at a viable mobile strategy? While

some demographic trends are fairly clear, consume

preference isnt overwhelmingly in one camp or

Face-Off: Apps vs. Mobile Browsers

Prepaid card use is problematic, however, fo

consumer advocacy groups, reports Bloomberg

Although the cards have proven helpful for 60 mil

lion citizens who lack transaction accounts and rely

on other providers such as check cashing services

fees can accumulate for low-income users.

Credit union providers recognize that prepaid

cards can be structured for great value to mem

bers otherwise subject to fees from payday lenders

Beyond that, the cards offer the prospect of new

members opening savings accounts and eventually

taking advantage of additional services.

The prepaid industry has recently released 10

joint principles for prepaid card fees, and the trend

seems to be that fees are dropping and becoming

more simplified in their structure.

$0

20

40

60

80

100

$120

2012*2011*20102009200820072006

$

billions

$1.8 3.88.7

18.3

16.6

67.7

$118.5

TECHNOLOGY

A m o un t L o ad e d o n P r e p ai d C ar d s

Source: The Network Branded Prepaid Card Association*Forecasts


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AUGUST 2011 ESCAN NEWSLETTER

TECHNOLOGY

the other. Usage drives many preferences, says

Murphy.

Consumers reported roughly equal satisfaction

with app and browser experiences, and users were

found to spend about an equal amount of time with

each, according to a 2010 study by Keynote Systems

for Adobe.

Within financial services, however, most users

preferred browsers for many common activities,

including reviewing accounts and conducting trans-

actions such as bill pay and money transfer.

Murphys advice: For broadest reach, biggest

bang for the buck, most efficient rollout and mainte-

nance, and searchable discovery, start with a mobile

website. Then, if and when budget and resources

allow, add individual apps for the major platforms

serving your audience for enhanced user and brand

experience.

Confidence and savings reach record lows

Americans are recognizing the realities they face

concerning a comfortable retirement, accord-

ing to the 2011 Retirement Confidence Survey(RCS) conducted by the Employee Benefit Research

Institute (EBRI) and Greenwald & Associates.

Employees are more pessimistic concerning

retirement than at any time in the past two decades.

About 27% of employees now say theyre not at

all confident about retirement, up five percentage

points from the level measured just one year ago.

Reinforcing that trend, the percentage of employ-

ees saying theyre very confident of a comfortable

retirement ties with 2009 at 13%the lowest rate

ever measured by the RCS.

Roughly one-third of employees and retirees had todip into savings last year to pay for basic expenses. Those

with retirement savings accounts401(k) accounts

or individual retirement accountswere far less likely

than those without such accounts to tap into savings.

People are recognizing the level of savings real-

istically needed for a comfortable retirement, says

Jack VanDerhei, EBRI research director and co-author

of the report. We know from previous surveys that

far too many people had false confidence.

Conditions forcing Americans to redefine retire-

ment include:

High unemployment rates;

Federal, state, and local government fiscal crises;

Rising health-care costs;

Lower investment returns; A surge in the older population, putting stress on

programs such as Social Security and Medicare; and

Longer life expectancies.

Many people are planning to work longer and

retire later because they know they simply cant

afford to leave the workplaceboth for the pay-

check and for the benefits, says survey co-author

Mathew Greenwald, of Greenwald & Associates.

The RCS continues to find that many people do

not plan or save for retirement:

While 59% of all employees say theyre currently

saving for retirement, 56% say they have less than

$25,000 in savings and investments, excluding the

value of their primary residence and any defined-

benefit pension plans.

Almost half (45%) are not very or not at all con-

fident they and their spouse will be able to save as

much as they think they need, and 70 % say theyre a

little or a lot behind schedule in planning and saving

for retirement.

Workers Getting Real About Retirement

HUMAN RESOURCES

SmartphonesFeature phones

2011

2010

2009

2008

87% 13%

81 19

69 31

51% 49%

S m ar tp h o n e P e n e tr ati o n *

Sources: Nielsen Co. and Filene Research Institute

*Third-quarter results and projections


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Apps vs Mobile Browsers