I attended the Mobey Forum meeting for the first quarter in California this month. The organisation was very well done and the venue provided by Sybase was very well too. A large percentage of the industry influencers attended and the quality of the presentations were generally of an extremely high standard.This is my key insights on the meeting:
- The difference in insight, understanding and substance between the US banks and the rest of the world in staggering. The status of mobile banking in the US banking sector is very, very far behind compared to other countries, including emerging countries. What makes this even worse is the fact that I don't think US banks realise this.
- The drive for and the tension between proximity payment initiatives and remote payments was quite obvious. One could see the difference between NFC and remote payment proponents and how they see the world clearly. (I will blog more on this later)
- I found some presentations (especially from smaller companies, or idividuals) to be of the highest quality, while larger companies failed in delivering substance. It was almost the case that the bigger the least substance.
- Standards are being worked on effectively. It was the closest that I think the industry has ever been in actually publishing standards/guidelines that are usuable.