It took almost six months, but Bank of America finally has company in Apple’s iPhone Web App Directory (see note 1).
USAA posted its iPhone-optimized Web app on July 2 (here). USAA’s browser-based app can be used by anyone with online access to their USAA accounts
(see note 2).
The resolution in the screenshot (right) is not great, but you can see the bank is using large iPhone-like icons to navigate to the main functions:
- Balance/transaction inquiry
- Funds transfer
- Bill payment
- Stock trading
- Order auto insurance cards
Provident Bank added its mShift-powered solution to the Apple directory June 11. Users are able to perform all typical online banking functions: balance/transaction inquiry,
transfer funds, and pay bills. Its pedestrian format (see below) is clearly built to work across many different mobile devices. The small links would be harder to navigate on an iPhone compared to USAA’s icons.
See previous iPhone banking coverage here.
Notes:
1. BofA was first in the United States. Germany’s Postbank was the first bank in the world in the app directory, beating BofA by a few weeks last fall.
2. These are mobile browser-based solutions optimized for the iPhone. They are NOT native apps running on the iPhone OS, soon to be featured in Apple’s App Store (see previous post).