Wells Fargo to shutter wireless banking service

[Ed Hansberry]

<a href="http://news.com.com/2100-1017-954592.html">http://news.com.com/2100-1017-954592.html</a><br /><br />"The financial company said [last] Tuesday that it plans to shut down the mobile service by late September, due to lack of interest. The service, which debuted last year and lets customers make transactions from cell phones and PDAs (personal digital assistants), had just 2,500 active customers, company spokeswoman Wendy Grover said."<br /><br />This is unfortunate. I think the wireless "revolution" is just getting started. Right now, the Wells Fargo banking service is only available on Sprint PCS phones and Palm handhelds, which I presume means the VII or i705. We are just now seeing the devices come to market that appeal to more mainstream users like the Treo, Pocket PC Phones and Phone/PDA bluetooth partnerships. I would have liked to have seen Wells Fargo stick it out a bit longer, but I understand their position. They would need more programming to get it to work on a Pocket PC or other cell phone providers, though I personally cannot imagine doing much more than a balance inquiry on my cell phone's screen.<br /><br />Let us hope they are putting this on a back burner to be resurrected in 12-18 months after the PDA/Smartphone market has had a chance to mature.

[Brad Adrian]

That time frame is probably just about right; the market is just too immature in North America. It is interesting to see Wells doing this, though, because they have a great reputation for venturing into technology areas that others dare not.

But, given that KeyCorp, Bank of America and Bank of Montreal have all pulled their wireless retail banking services in recent months, I think Wells saw little advantage to keeping theirs going.

[sundown]

1) I didn't even know they had that service available

2) Even if I did, I don't use Sprint PCS

I agree the market is not mature here but I'm guessing part of the blame can be given to a failed marketing campaign and the lack of a unified cellular technology.

[Brad Adrian]

1. North Americans don't "get" wireless data yet, at least not the same way Europeans do.
2. Wireless network coverage is still very spotty.
3. Banks have provided little compelling content beyond account balances, etc.
4. Compatible devices are only now becoming affordable and commonplace.
5. Mobile payments systems are still in infancy.

[don dre]

It's amazing to watch how the unregulated spectrums are filling up and expanding at such a rapid clip (WiFi et al). Kind of makes you wonder what the FCC is doing other than helping big corp's dominate the radio waves and making the networks richer. It's enough to make a man think. I think I will be checking my bank acct on my wifi enabled evice before I will be on my cell phone. Of course, I live in a city.

[splintercell]

They would need more programming to get it to work on a Pocket PC or other cell phone providers

Why so? Granted, WAP is not the ideal solution for anything and is either going to be eclipsed or morph into some other standard, but it is essentially cross-platform and cross-carrier. And building a Palm PQA app to point to some simple pages isn't a big deal either.

[aussie]

Up here in Canada Bank of Montreal recently shuttered its wireless offering as well (VeeV) while they have kept their US based Harris Bank offering alive.

Interesting that both the Bank of Montreal and Wells Fargo offerings were essentially developed by 724 Solutions.

[Brad Adrian]

Up here in Canada Bank of Montreal recently shuttered its wireless offering as well (VeeV) while they have kept their US based Harris Bank offering alive.
Interesting that both the Bank of Montreal and Wells Fargo offerings were essentially developed by 724 Solutions.

I believe the Harris Bank wireless offering will ONLY include brokerage alert messages, not things like checking account management. Bank of Montreal actually owns part of 724 Solutions, so their announcement was the one that really surprised me.

[aussie]

that is correct - Harris is owned by BMO and BMO was one of the first VC's (Capital investors) into 724. I am not sure but also think that Well's had some investment into 724. I personally am surprised that 724 is still around.