Aptus Consultants

The recent Post Magazine roundtable on ‘Mobile Technology’ highlighted two key themes which companies should  consider:

The first, and ultimately the most important, is the emergence of mobile as potentially the primary mechanism by which users will access the web. The catalyst for this is the ‘Smartphone’, multi functional mobile devices such as the iPhone, HTC Hero and Google Nexus, which provide a good user web experience. They currently account for about 20% of new UK phone sales, and Gartner believe their penetration will be over 40% by 2013. My money is on their roll out being far faster than this for a number of reasons:

• Mobile operators are pushing low cost contract tariffs with unlimited web browsing to encourage internet access, as part of which they are including Smartphones for free or at minimal cost.
• The battles for mobile operating system supremacy (Windows, iPhone OS, Android etc) and manufacturer supremacy (Blackberry, Apple, HTC, Nokia etc) which are rapidly expanding Smartphone functionality, reducing costs and hence increasing desirability.
• The exponential growth of mobile ‘apps’, small downloadable software programmes, which further expand Smartphone functionality and appeal. iPhone now offer 140,000 apps while Android offer 40,000.

The mobile ecosystem in Asia is further advanced than in the UK and the impact of higher Smartphone penetration is already apparent. For example, in Japan 75% of social network interactions (messaging, status updates, photo uploads etc) which previously would have been performed via desktop or laptop are now being performed via mobile. UK Financial Services companies urgently need to consider the implications of mobile internet access as part of their wider web, eCommerce and customer communication strategies.

The other theme, and more pressing in the short term, is the extent to which financial services companies are failing to exploit the opportunities for cost reduction and service improvement that current mobile technologies present. For example:

• There are more households in the UK now that only have a mobile than with just a landline, mobile penetration is so high that there are 125 mobiles for every 100 people, and most consumers have their mobile accessible for more hours per day than their home phone. Despite these facts, very few companies capture a person’s mobile number as the primary phone contact.
• Text messaging is universally understood, low cost and highly targeted. Indeed we now send more texts each week in the UK now than we sent in the whole of 2000. Despite this, few companies are exploiting the opportunities text presents to improve customer service and reduce costs (e.g. incorporation of update texts in protracted administration processes so as to keep the consumer informed and hence head off the cost of ‘chase’ enquiry calls).

So while financial services companies should be planning for the impact of future mobile technology, they should also be ensuring that they fully exploit the potential of the mobile technology that is already here.