Currently operating in a limited pilot, and undergoing certification, the app is expected to become generally available next week.
With around a million of its iPhone and Android apps already in the market (70 per cent being iOS downloads), the bank has already tackled the two major smartphone user groups. There are far fewer users of Windows phones.
NAB was coy about saying what proportion of mobile log ons to its website came from Windows devices, although it claimed that the decision to develop a windows phone app was based on user agitation particularly from social networks, although the bank has said it only ever received about 50 requests for such an app.
According to a report published last week by analyst IDC, which surveyed 3,500 app developers, 53 per cent forecast that iOS would become the dominant enterprise development platform, compared to 37 per cent which claimed Android would win.
Windows 7 devices didn’t rate much of a mention, although the report noted that survey respondents were “cautiously optimistic” about Windows 8.
According to NAB one in three of its 900,000 internet banking log-ons come from a mobile device, and over the last year demand for mobile banking has risen 270 per cent. By next year it forecasts more than half of all bank log ons to come from mobile devices.
Chris Bright, head of apps business development at Microsoft, claimed that the Windows app ecosystem was continuing to grow with more than 100,000 apps now available. He described banking as one of the “bedrock” applications for mobile devices.
