The innovation vs reliability debate for mobile banking

Any industry is created by new inventions. Consider the establishment of the motor car industry. The first cars built and sold were extremely unreliable but were brand new. The concept of a carriage without a horse was extremely innovative. After some time, the design of the car started stabilising (a vehicle with four wheels - one at each corner, with passengers in the middle). Cars started looking more and more like each other. At that stage, buyers started realising that what they actually needed was reliability. During the initial stages of an industry, innovation is a prime driving force, but as the industry matures, reliability, predictability and solid engineering grow in importance.

It is probably not correct to think of the mobile banking industry as a mature industry, but it may be important to start considering the reliability of solutions a bit more. The big emphasise on innovation and originality of ideas should be tempered with an appreciation of the importance of robustness and solid design. At some stage, decisions taken only on the basis of novelty will come back to haunt.