I could not believe it when I read it. If you do not own a iPhone, ANZ bank in Australia would suspend their existing mobile banking, because, wait for it: "..most of what they use M-Banking for can be accessed from TXT or Internet Banking". (Read here and here).Immediately, twitter was full of comments from ANZ customers:
" ANZ is shutting down it's Mobile Banking service so now I have to SMS or phone them. WTF? Wrong direction ppl!"
"ANZ is killing off its mobile banking site. Why? It was good! I used it! Bah."
"So annoying, I use the ANZ java app on my BlackBerry :("
"stupid ANZ killing mobile banking, I use it all the time"
According to the announcement a very small percentage of ANZ clients use the service anyhow, so the impact would not be that big. It would be interesting to understand why such a small percentage use the mobile banking feature. Is it because it does not work? or is the registration process complex? Could it be that mobile banking was not marketed successfully, or is it just true that Australians do not want mobile banking? The obvious approach to all of this, would have been to fix the problem and to keep the service running as it would (at a minimum) serve as a basis for learning.
Maybe this announcement is part of a bigger plan, to possibly change suppliers or structure the service in anther way. How many times have we seen the technology department taking "architectural" decisions and then not inform marketing or not packaging it in such a way that it is plausible for their customers. I have a feeling that ANZ have decided to take a new direction in offering mobile banking to their customers, but have not told us yet.
Anybody with some insights?