ITWire

The bank launched goMoney for iPhone in September 2010 – and at that time hinted that an Android version might not be far behind. It took another 24 months to come good on that promise.

ANZ’s goMoney was the Australian pioneer of mobile phone based payments. Once customers are logged in to the system from their smartphone they can view balances, manage accounts and make payments.

While there are now a number of other apps offering similar functions, goMoney was the first. Demand for the app has been strong and the bank today claimed that in August alone 700,000 users processed around 5 million transactions using goMoney.

While ANZ has taken an extraordinarily long two years to ready its Android version of goMoney, other banks are racing ahead developing new functionality for the platform, which is now the most common smartphone platform internationally.

The challenge for many app developers has been however that although Android smartphone sales have now outstripped sales of Apple’s iOS there are well over a thousand different devices running Android each of which have subtle differences which need to be accommodated for in product design.

Progress is however being made.

Last week Westpac, Optus and French company Oberthur Technologies confirmed they were working on a trial which will turn an Android smartphone into a contactless payment device, without the need for separate NFC chips or bulky phone cases. The bank hopes to launch the system in 2013.

If the trial is successful it will mean that Westpac will be able to offer contactless payments using Near Field Communications technology from any Android phone regardless of its form factor – in the past that has been one of the barriers slowing banks from offering NFC enabled cases which can quickly turn Android smartphones into contactless payment devices.