Tablet computers: the next big growth channel? Tablets, like the iPad, have the potential of providing large amounts of complex information displayed in easily accessible formats. Banks that take advantage of this mobile banking technology can ramp up customer enjoyment.

• Author: Stewart, Deb

TABLET COMPUTERS--ESPECIALLY THE IPAD--are changing the way that customers bank. Also, tablets are modifying the way that banks provide sales and service to their customers.

EMarketer estimates that by 2012, more than 54.8 million people in the United States will use a tablet device at least once per month, with 76.4 percent of them--about 41 million--using iPads. In a recent survey by Oracle entitled, "Opportunity Calling: The Future of Mobile Communications, Take Two," 34 percent of respondents who owned or planned to buy a tablet within the next 12 months, said that they would like to use that device with banking or finance applications.

Financial institutions have been quick to respond to these realities. Apple.com rankings as of March 1, 2012, show that financial services companies hold four of the top five spots for free financial apps for iPad:

1. Bank of America for iPad

2. Chase Mobile

3. Amex for iPad

4. Mint.com

5. USAA App for iPad.

iPad apps: A step beyond iPhone apps

As national and regional banks have quickly added iPad apps to their product offering, the basic transaction set mirrors that of mobile banking. Customers can manage their deposit accounts, loans and credit cards. They can check balances, view posted and pending transactions, transfer funds between accounts, pay bills, view check images and statements, and locate branches and ATMs.

Many iPad apps resemble the bank's iPhone app in both appearance and functionality--but take advantage of the iPad's larger screen configuration.

"Today, our customers most often use the iPad for the same types of transactions as on iPhone--checking balances, reviewing transactions and transferring funds, says Marc L. Warshawaky, mobile solutions executive for Bank of America, Charlotte, N.C. "We provide similar capabilities across these applications--but each leverages a unique user experience that is tailored to the specific devise. And while simple transactions are the current consumer focus, we see already many tablet customers moving beyond the basics--this will grow exponentially in the coming months and years."

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These unique capabilities are already being leveraged in some interesting ways. "We are now providing graphical displays of our customers' financial information, they can flip through checks with a simple gesture (as if turning the pages of an eBook), they receive colorful renderings of their bank statements and transaction receipts for credit card...