To many banks, the tablet is just another mobile device, but some are finding that the bigger screen gives the iPad and its peers bigger potential.
BB&T Corp. is among the first to do so, offering an application designed specifically for Apple Inc.'s iPad that lets prospective and existing customers open accounts, a feature rare among mobile banking apps. It also lets customers perform standard functions like check account balances, pay bills and locate automated teller machines.
That the Winston-Salem, N.C., bank gave special attention to the iPad is rare in and of itself; many financial services firms have simply ported their iPhone apps to the iPad with little customization, resulting in a subpar customer experience, technology analysts said.
Many banks have overlooked the "opportunities to leverage" the features that make the iPad different from smartphones, said Emmett Higdon, a senior analyst who focuses on retail banking technology at Forrester Research Inc.
"We had many of the same complaints or issues with early mobile applications, early iPhone applications … where they were taking the exact same functionality that we had in the online space" and putting it on the phone, Higdon said.
BB&T, which has offered account opening through its online banking site since 2006, included the function in its iPad app to give customers more options, said Patricia Kinney, the online channel development manager for online account opening at BB&T.
Kinney said that the bank has been working to refine the account-opening process over the years so that it is "only asking for client information that we absolutely need to ask them … to simplify it on the back end." That has helped to address some of the challenges consumers face on a smaller screen as well.
"I think even on smaller devices … people will find that most of our account-opening applications … are very streamlined," Kinney said.
Most large banks offer the ability to open accounts online but many customers have had negative experiences with them, according to Mark Schwanhausser, a senior analyst with Javelin Strategy and Research in Pleasanton, Calif.
A study Javelin released last year found that of consumers who tried to open a checking account online, only 45% were successful in opening and funding it. Nineteen percent were able to open the account but were not able to fund it, 28% abandoned the process and 7% were denied the ability to do so.
"The process is popular but the results are spotty," Schwanhausser said. He said it is smart for banks to make the account-opening capability as widespread as possible but he cautioned against making the feature available on mobile and tablet devices if they have not yet perfected it online.
"When it says it's an automatic door, you shouldn't have to push it to open it," Schwanhausser said.
BB&T is not the first bank to offer a customized app for iPad users. Last month BBVA released an iPad app designed specifically for the device. The bank, a subsidiary of Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria SA's Compass Bancshares Inc., said it wanted to avoid the trap of thinking of the iPad as a giant iPhone.
Bank of America Corp. already offers online account opening, and people who access its standard website on a smartphone or tablet can research and apply for products and services, a spokeswoman said in an e-mail.
"Bank of America is seeing significant growth in the number of customers applying for products and services via mobile devices," the spokeswoman said.
"Mobile-optimized account opening" is on Citigroup Inc.'s road map but it is waiting to see more demand before it offers the service, a spokeswoman said in an e-mail.
"Opening a new account for someone who isn't already a customer requires a fair amount of information input by the user," the spokeswoman said. "A mobile interface needs to be thought through very carefully. When we do roll it out, we expect it to be via mobile browser rather than through a downloadable app."
BB&T, which has apps for the iPhone and Research In Motion Ltd.'s BlackBerry devices, debated whether the iPad was another mobile device or more akin to a laptop or personal computer from an experience standpoint, said Sumit Deshpande, online channel group manager for mobile and messaging services at BB&T.
"Really it is a little bit of everything," Deshpande said. As such, the bank set out to provide features familiar to online banking users but present it in a way that took advantage of the iPad's smaller form.
For certain functions, the app starts a browser session inside it and pulls information from BB&T's website.
"You're still within the app shell but you're accessing live information," Deshpande said.
A major question banks are debating when deciding whether to invest in the iPad and other tablets is whether the potential audience is worth the cost, Higdon said. While customizing is smarter than throwing an iPhone app on to the iPad, there is not enough current demand to justify the investment costs, he said.
A report released this month by Forrester analyst Sarah Rotman Epps said tablet sales are expected to reach 44 million in 2015 from 10.3 million in 2010.
"I think it's safe to say by the numbers alone it's not an imperative for every company, every bank, to have an app this year," Epps said in an interview Thursday.
