Mobile, Online Banking Lines Blur

Online banking and mobile banking are quickly becoming the same thing, according to Forrester Research.

Forrester researchers defined online bankers as consumers who have checked account balances, transferred money, or paid bills at a bank’s website in the past three months.

Mobile bankers were defined as those who have ever used mobile banking services via text alerts, mobile Internet, or a mobile application to check account balances, transfer money or pay a bill.

That doesn't mean all mobile banking will involve mobile payments, a subset of mobile banking activity. But the study does suggest that consumers are becoming more comfortable using mobile devices for banking operations. That's important for banks, among others. It took some time for people to get comfortable with automated teller machines as well, but that level of acceptance has major implications for the cost of supporting banking operations.

ATMs made "bank branches" affordable and abundant. Mobile phones should do the same, to a wider extent.

Mobile, Online Banking Lines Blur

Dwolla Launches “Proxi” For Proximity-Based Mobile Payments

Online and mobile payment platform Dwolla just launched a new feature called “Proxi” which allows users to send and receive cash-based mobile payments based on their current proximity to another connected device.

The technology bypasses the need for special hardware, like Square’s plastic dongles or NFC chips built into a phone, in order to make mobile payments, and operates on a peer-to-peer basis.

Dwolla Launches “Proxi” For Proximity-Based Mobile Payments

Development Impact of Mobile Banking

It isn't often that some communications application or service can clearly be seen as having enormous social or development impact, in a way that normal people can grasp.

Consider the area of international remittances. Worldwide, some 200 million migrant workers send more than $300 billion a year to their relatives in their home countries.

For some nations, the remittance sums exceed their foreign direct-investment totals. One can question the impact of the hundreds of billions in government and non-governmental aid over the past 60 or so years. It is easy to understand the impact of family members sending money "back home."

Sure, economists can calculate the benefit of just about any type of economic activity. But such estimates often fail to capture benefit in a way an average person can understand. Mobile banking in developing nations is the exception to the rule.

The average cost of sending money across borders is currently about nine percent, which gives mobile-money platforms a vast opportunity to reduce these costs, which leaves more money in the pockets of the recipients and the wage earners.

Development Impact of Mobile Banking

The People Who Give Your Social Media Its Buzz

According to new data from Yahoo and market research firm Added Value, just 15 percent of social networkers fall into this elite category of “power sharers.” Social Media Buzz

The two firms surveyed 1,500 people between the ages of 15 and 64, and found that 56 percent of social media users share something from news or entertainment media at least once a day through a broad range of online platforms, including email and instant messaging.

Power "sharers" tend to be male (61 percent), young, and politically and socially liberal, the study finds. 

Erply takes on Square, Verifone with new mobile payment device

Erply has launched a new mobile credit card reader for handheld mobile devices. The Erply card reader is designed to support traditional credit card processing as well as near field communications (NFC) technology. http://www.erply.com/

The Erply card reader can be used the Apple iPad, though an iPhone version is promised within three months or so. The Erply mobile credit card reader costs $50, and then there is a 1.9 percent transaction fee per charge.

Erply takes on Square, Verifone

Steve Jobs Resigns

Apple’s Board of Directors today announced that Steve Jobs has resigned as Chief Executive Officer, and the Board has named Tim Cook, previously Apple’s Chief Operating Officer, as the company’s new CEO. Jobs has been elected Chairman of the Board and Cook will join the Board, effective immediately. Steve Jobs resigns


The day Steve Jobs was not able to lead Apple has been dreaded by investors for quite some time. Jobs remains chairman, but the questions now will become real.

Few companies in any industry have been so personally bound up with a founding executive, and Apple has been one of the few. Few executives in any industry have had the ability to reshape whole industries, and Jobs has done that, more than once.

Supporters will say Apple has a management culture and leadership team that will be able to continue to guide Apple in the future. That seems reasonable enough. But Steve Jobs was not just any executive. And no matter how talented his successors might be, one has to wonder what the implications might be.

In an open letter, Jobs said "I have always said if there ever came a day when I could no longer meet my duties and expectations as Apple’s CEO, I would be the first to let you know. Unfortunately, that day has come."

Jobs remains Chairman of the Board and a director of the company. Jobs has been on medical leave recently, and it is safe to say many will be praying for him.

Which E-Reader has the Best Customer Service?

There might be times when retail outlets come in very handy for technical support. Granted, you probably don't typically require technical support for things you buy on Amazon.com. And Amazon generally gets very high marks for customer support. But Amzon also sells Kindles, and mobile devices can occasionally require some technical support.

Those might be times where a network of retail outlets could affect consumer experiences. Here’s an overview of the support offered by four of the most popular E-readers.

Which E-Reader has the Best Customer Service?