While Jim has his tongue firmly in cheek with this comment, its not so far off. If your strategy is to be everywhere for everyone, then consider the new Safari strategy.

So go ahead and start building your Safari-optimized 336 x 168 by webpage. Make sure you drop a few nifty icons on the page so Mac users feel at home (see inset). Extra credit if you launch the page on 5:59 PM EDT June 29, 1 minute before the iPhone goes on sale on the East Coast.

Source: Netbanker

I have been absorbed by Marc Andreessens recent blogging, and this particular post is a keeper [stay with me here]. This is a seminal description of the web, and its current state, as it enters an important fork.

Marc’s basic point is well summarised here:

Veterans of the software industry have, hardcoded into their DNA, the assumption that in any fight between a platform and an application, the platform will always win.

He was talking about the Facebook platform. In that context, Safari is a platform. A platform is something that is available to all, and applications can be built on it. Safari is now available for Mac and Windows, AND iPhone. Hence Jim’s intuitive leap for Banks to lever that platform.

Lots of new stuff for Bank IT strategists to consider here.

Relevance to Bankwatch:
A question: what should online banking represent?
1) a web site
2) a set of functions that exist wherever customers need them

Technorati tags: Banking Strategy