Mobile banking to soar?

After some fits and starts and lots of debate, the banking industry finally seems willing to bet on mobile applications. The stars seem to be aligning. The recent FCC wireless auction was seen as victory for banks, mainly because it will help them deploy mobile applications with less interference from telcos. We can certainly expect more apps in financial information, transfers, payments and account management. But is Juniper Research getting carried away? Information Week reports that the firm predicts mobile transactions will rise from 2.7 billion in 2007 to 37 billion by 2011. Such estimates are notoriously tricky. (I recall a few back in the day that predicted OS/2 would hold its own against Windows.) Interestingly, the report found that much of the growth will come from China other Asian countries.  

For more:
- here's the Information Week article
- here's an article from Bank Technology News on the wireless auction