And perhaps Scotiabank's announcement that they will be rolling out Mobile Banking in Canada (Spring 2010) is a sign of the times... as well as Master Card's announcement that together with RIM and BMO they will run a 4-month payments trial in Canada. All good news for the industry. And good news for Canadians.

Hi Ahmed - Thanks for dropping by. If you do have more information it would be great if you could expand on your comment and provide a better indication of why exactly you find one better than the others.

Martin - Great comments. Very succinctly put. Almost too good to be lost in the comment section all the way down here. The Mobile Strategy blog may be turning into one of those blogs I go to mostly read the comments :)

I did look at your link and it is also worth a read!

Thanks Fred - I like the different categories you use but I disagree with two things you say:

1. Applications - I am simply using the term to refer to all of the above mentioned by you. To put it simply - something you download onto your device and is supposed to add value to the end user. Value in this case can be simple entertainment through a game all the way up to a \'device emulator application.\'

2. I definitely don\'t agree with you to on the \'real applications\' bit. Everyone of those other app regardless of their simplicity or their use (personal vs enterprise) is still an application.

If you are back and following the conversation I\'d like to understand a little more about your definition and criteria for \'real applications.\'

Stephen - Thank you for your comments and the link. Interesting model.

David - Thanks for your post and your insight.

I totally agree with you (obviously - I know).

After years of using technology as an excuse, it no longer presents an obstacle to building a comprehensive and inclusive mobile banking platform for Canadians. Both consumer and enterprise devices are more sophisticated than ever before with faster processors, more memory and better displays. Mobile networks are faster and cheaper and the mobile alternatives to both WAP and HTML available today allow for an infinitely better user experience with more robust and versatile applications.

The technology (networks and devices) are already here and it is only a matter of leveraging them.

Barbara - It\'s always a pleasure to have you add your insight here. I would add to your definition one thing - I would go beyond just the mobile phone. A mobile phone is not not always the best tool for a mobile worker. I realize that nowadays when we speak of mobile devices most typically people are typically referring to \'phones\' but I still believe we haven\'t quite made the jump to it being the only answer for our mobile workers.

Thanks for dropping by Tom. It is amazing how many times I have actually seen the business process be the last thing that is looked at. First comes the \'great\' idea for an application, then comes the development and at the end they try and figure out how to integrate it into the workflow.

Crazy stuff!

I probably should have done the same... :)

Hi David - Thanks for dropping by. I will not actually update the information until it happens but it is noted in the comments here. I would certainly like to learn a little more about what the new Percent Mobile will look like. I will contact you offline when I began the data collection for each of the providers.