First Notes From the Mobile Commerce Summit

The pre-conference workshop "Mobile Marketing: How Financial Institutions Can Deploy the Newest Marketing Channel" just wrapped up. It was fairly interesting in that it focused not on the state of mobile as a marketing channel today but instead focused more on the coming mobile ecosystem that is expected to reach maturity in 2010 - 2011 time frame. Essentially in the next two years we are going to see mobile commerce explode in a big way and the FI is a central player in this. When you think about it, if done properly, the bank owns the customer relationship given that they are present at every point of sale. More on this later. Here are some general talking points from today:

• 53% of all US banks plan to offer mobile in the next 12-24 months.
• 70% of all call center call volume will be via mobile.
• 40% of gen Y feel that having a mobile option dictates their choice of cards and accounts.
• The Air Force is effectively leveraging mobile capabilities as a recruiting tool.