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The top four free Finance category iPhone apps all have something in common (besides being located in the iTunes store):

Practical Functionality

With these four apps users can check balances, look at statements and monitor their finances with no unnecessary add-ons or frills. In other words, the apps are a complement to the already existing online banking sites, not a replacement. And while some users describe these apps as “nothing special,” that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Although mobile devices are quickly becoming a primary means to accomplish tasks, find information and experience media, their very scale and design helps dictate functionality.

You wouldn’t use a snorkel mask to go scuba diving. (You wear one so you can explore the ocean—but not to the extent that you would with air tanks and scuba gear.)

So what does this say about the future of financial apps?

Although we will be capable of accomplishing more through our mobile devices as technology, bandwidth, and battery life evolves, the medium will continue to dictate the material. Applying for a loan, reading terms and signing a contract on a mobile device simply isn’t practical. Financial apps will allow users to accomplish the tasks they deem necessary on the go. In effect, there will be more financial apps for more financial institutions as the consumer needs grow, but the depth of the apps may not increase at the same speed. Yet, mobile banking and monitoring interfaces will become more intuitive and therefore easier to use—driving mobile banking usership alongside smart-phone technology.

Consumers are already considering mobility a factor when deciding on financial institutions. Does the user find functional value in the app? Is the interface user-friendly? These mobility-centric questions will continue to fuel innovation in the financial services decision-making process. One of biggest challenges for the future of financial apps is to, as Mike Maddock puts it in Always Bring Donuts, “Design useful things."

Have you seen the new Maddock Douglas homepage?

We’ve discussed the importance of content, the power and potential of 4G, and now we’re ready to highlight some of our favorite mobile innovations picks:

Alertme and Google’s PowerMeter

Energy and Sustainability Innovation

Alertme is a UK energy management start-up creating devices that read and monitor energy data—no electrician necessary. The components, a Nano Hub (the “brains of the kit”) requires power and a broadband connection so it can talk to the reader and transmitter, gathering and distributing energy data to the AlertMe dashboard—an online interface for adjusting and monitoring your home energy spend in real time.

Without any further additions, AlertMe is already a wonderful idea. The fact that people using AlertMe services can, for instance, turn the heat off from work, and monitor those changes to save money and help decrease their footprint is hands-down innovative. But now Google had stepped in to take things to the next level.

Google recently partnered with AlertMe to add what they’d been missing—the device component for their PowerMeter offering. PowerMeter, a free application that allows users to “see electricity use from any Google PowerMeter enabled device,” brings real-time energy data to the mobile, anytime, anywhere level. And with 4G speeds already up and running in major markets, going green never looked so fast.

The Ikea Portable Interior Planner

Augmented Reality and Planning Innovation

There’s no doubt that for many, IKEA is the place to find forward thinking design that’s in line with conservative budgets. But, since the beginning of furniture buying, there’s been a problem: How can people accurately envision how furniture will look and how can anyone know if the item will even fit in the envisioned area?

This problem is obviously a deterrent for purchases. But now, all you need to do is go to your Portable Interior Planner app, take a photo of that sofa you’ve been thinking about, aim your camera at the proposed area where the furniture might be placed, and see the sofa superimposed over the image of the room. Then, the product can be scaled up or down to match room size and saved for later reference. The Portable Interior Planner is a solution to a long overlooked problem—and the need is met by a mobile app that utilizes augmented reality.

Mobile represents one of the greatest untapped markets for 2010 and beyond. These are our favorite recent evolutions in an ever expanding new product, service, and business model environment. What are some of your favorite innovations in mobile technology?

Have you seen the new Maddock Douglas homepage?

Last week, we talked about the mobile whitespace, the power of the app and consumer consideration. And as we know, brands are utilizing the mobile space to not only commercialize products and services, but also to assist the consumer. The Mobile Magic app, for instance, by Disney and Verizon Wireless is replete with relevant content: wait times for rides, restaurant information and where and when Disney characters will make appearances are all included in a data dispensing, real-time, GPS enabled mobile guide. Now, Walt Disney World patrons can make decisions based on helpful information—effectively creating a richer, more realized theme park experience. Disney and Verizon Wireless are ultimately creating an entity beyond the app. Instead of filling the mobile whitespace solely with entertaining content or just charts and data, Mobile Magic finds the cross hairs. In this case, it becomes more than an application— it becomes a resource—maybe even a necessity to fully experience the World of Walt Disney.

But what happens when 4G hits mobile commercialization? How does an app like Mobile Magic hold up? Yes, you guessed it: faster.

The technology moving the message is ramping up—in fact two weeks ago, Clearwire launched WiMax, (also known as 4G) in Chicago, facilitating the beginning of an ultramobile enabled market. With higher speeds come the ability to view richer media, and since streaming audio and video from sites like youtube.com accounts for roughly 27% of global internet traffic, it’s not difficult to see where brands are looking next.

Hulu is already doing it. If you want to watch a free movie, you have to sit through a mini 15 second spot. But if 4G speeds things up and consumers watch more, shorter length videos on their mobile phones, what does this mean? One second spots for every thirty second video? This sounds like either subliminal messaging or completely ineffective, but most likely both. (And an aside: Hulu recently announced they will be charging for their content.) So now what?

Next week I'll highlight some of the companies that are creating innovative products, services, and business models to take advantage of the coming developments in mobile bandwidth and technologies.

Have you seen the new Maddock Douglas homepage?

Smartphones are everywhere. But what about smart content? Last week, we talked about the importance of strategy and insight. And now, it’s time to explore the ultimate creative commercialization frontier: mobile whitespace.

Many have done it before, that is, faced the “White Bull,” also known as the blank page. Only now, in the digital age, we’ve been presented with mobile whitespace, the gift of nearly unlimited digital possibilities that fit in the palm of your hand. What we choose to fill it with today has the potential to revolutionize the mobile space for years to come. With the purchase of two billion apps to date, we know that content is the lifeblood of anything worth paying attention to. And now, we also know that useful and interesting content gains more traction and leaves a greater brand imprint. But let’s go beyond that. Let’s talk targeted innovation.

For those of us without Tivo or DVR watching a favorite show, we’re bound to see the same thirty-second spot at least more than once. After the third time, you may be annoyed. Granted the strategy behind this placement is brand penetration, there’s a big problem: if anyone is interested in purchasing the commercialized service or product, they’re probably in one of many buying stages. And if they’re receiving the same singular message that is anchored to one stage, over and over, the brand loses relevancy. This content strategy is the equivalent of asking a multitude of various questions about the product and receiving the same answer, over and over—whether or not it makes sense.

To make a purchasing decision, people want more pertinent information, not the same set of facts. And in the mobile realm, we have an extraordinary opportunity to give people information they may want or need to assist them in making a purchase. Mobile content is faster—replacing a message is no longer a month long conundrum. And if customers are interested in a set of products and choose to opt in, we have the information we need to help them, instead of pushing one message into their faces, hoping for the best. After all, just as Apple puts it: Smartphones are “solving life’s dilemmas, one app at a time.” Why not help solve the purchasing decision dilemma?

Now is the time to innovate in this space and to turn insights into relevant realities. Now is the time to truly consider the consumer. And with mobile technology literally ramping up, we have the chance to do something revolutionary.

Next week, I’ll be discussing the emerging technology driving mobile innovation. Tune in next week to see what’s next and why.

Have you seen the new Maddock Douglas homepage?

Innovation opportunities within the mobile arena are major game changers. With the proliferation and widespread adoption of the smartphone, brands are faced with a wide range of possible solutions and strategic choices when attempting to fill in this commercialization whitespace. Although auto brands like Volkswagen and Audi have already seen considerable success integrating their brands into the mobile spaces by leveraging the popularity of mobile gaming, for many others, the mobile waters can be tricky to navigate. Pepsi’s app “Before You Score,” a mobile interface designed to help adolescent boys and young men target different “types” of women, “score” and then share their experiences on Twitter and Facebook, received so much negative feedback from both women and their target audience that Pepsi eventually pulled it. In this consumer-driven market, what makes mobile advertising successful—and what makes it a liability?

Strategy

Accurate insights and up-to-date data are crucial to great brand strategy.

Without it, brands end up overestimating the needs, desires and attitudes of their target market. And that, as we all know, ends up in near disaster. Mobile marketing is one of the most recent developments in the means of delivering the message, and for many it can be an innovative medium to build on. However, a foundation of solid research that supports an actual need is required to build something of worth—to the client and the consumer.

Content

We’ve all heard “content is king,” but what is content? For mobile advertising, the content is the medium within the medium.

People are great at avoiding, skipping, or just plain ignoring ads—why shouldn’t they? What value does a logo bar on an RSS feed add to the lives of your target audience? Probably not much. To successfully penetrate the mobile space and your target market, brands have to add value to peoples lives and give them something they want or need to use or see. The method of delivering relative content has become part of the content in the mobile space.

The numbers are there—mobile phone use, and smartphone use in particular is increasing dramatically. Are you prepared to innovate and ride the next commercialization revolution?

Have you seen the new Maddock Douglas homepage?