The goal of any business is to find a way to do things equally well; first, attract customers to the business, and second, get them to pay for your product and/or service. From this simple premise has spawned what is probably one of the most complex and sophisticated inter-network of technologies and systems to have ever been developed by the hand of man.

The questions that we all face, and want to look at are; where is it all going, and which methodology and delivery system really works best? Easy payment translates to larger sales and a greater instance of impulse purchasing. We all know that if you make the purchasing process easy and remove any thought of how much you are spending then the tendency is to spend more.

Credit cards have been a boon to impulse spending. They allow people to expand their purchasing power and manage their personal cash flow to maximum effect. The growth of the Internet as a secure (somewhat) medium for transaction handling and communications expanded the use of credit cards by providing a comprehensive infrastructure over which data could flow. With that, and in conjunction with the credit card infrastructure, we saw the rise of the World Wide Web as a vehicle for accepting
payments and the rise of the online payment industry subset.

Enter the cell phone - the increasingly ubiquitous consumer communication device that has grown to become more than a mere phone. The rise of the cell phone as a key piece of personal technology will continue to grow; its use as a payment device seems an inescapable and inevitable extension to its utility.

Mobile banking is a concept that was recognized a long time back more so as a convenience for existing customers. It was seen mostly as a ‘cost’ centre. Many banks across the globe were very hesitant to adopt the idea. This could be due to the fact that banks too perceived it as a value adds to the customer but a cost to themselves. The smaller banks were waiting patiently to see the response of some services taken up by the lead banks.
There are a host of value added services that can be made available through mobile banking. I have tried and analysed some of the most used services. However, there shall be, with the advancement of technology many more services that may be made available. These services can be broadly categorised into four types:
• Account Access Services
• Event Based Services
• Financial Transactions and Payments
• Mobile Retailing

In addition Market researcher Gartner has pinpointed the top ten consumer mobile applications consumers will be using and downloading in the year 2012. The most popularly used applications will include those designed to facilitate mobile money transfers, location-based services and mobile search said Gartner in its November 18, 2009 report.