Two Versions of the Same Story?

It is so important to read the media to follow what is happening with mobile banking. Many of the findings and research results related to mobile banking are published and discussed the media. I regularly scan what gets published.

Therefore, I was very disappointed when I saw the following headline in an on-line news-report: "Americans not interested in m-banking" (Read more about this here). I read the article and found that it was based on some research published by Harris Interactive. The poll summarised the reaction of 1000 odd sample (not a very big sample and I am not sure how representative it is). I found some of the results very positive. According to my interpretation at least a third of the respondents were interested in mobile banking in some format or other. Although much lower than in other markets, this is still huge. Any other product to be launched in the US with a potential take-up of a third of the population would be described as having massive potential.

Anyhow, the next day I saw the following headline on another website: "Cell phone users open to on-the-go banking". (Read about it here). This seemed to be a much more positive view of mobile banking and I read on with interest. It turns out that these two headlines were articles reporting on exactly the same research and the numbers referenced were exactly the same.

Which all goes to show that some people view the half empty glass as half full. It is just a pity that the "half empty" journalists seems to be reporting on mobile banking more often than not.