According to an article by Kosta Peric recently posted on The Forbes, online security is becoming a key issue in the digital age of banking. A multitude of different banks offers online services, however some customers are still uncertain of the security aspect and hence prefer to do banking manually (by paying the bank a visit).

As most companies are slowly moving away from the manual handling of money and towards a fully digital process of banking, this poses a problem. Customers often make the decision of what bank to choose based on the online reputation of the bank. Therefore if the banks cannot provide services that are 100% secure, their customer base will shrink.

Do you believe that the issue of online security is exaggerated? This is not a new phenomenon, yet people still fear the concept of virtual money. How so?

In the article by Erika Morphy, Research In Motion (RIM) is portrayed in a very negative light. The producer of Blackberry phones has just recently lost a number of its key customers.

Blackberry mobile was the provider of mobile devices for various governmental organisations and agencies. Over 42,000 individuals in the above organisations were provided with Blackberry phones by their employers. Recently however, it has been announced that The Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency and Booz Allen Hamilton and its 25,000 staffers are dropping BlackBerry in order to switch to Apple’s iPhone 5.

In one of Forbes’ recent articles, the concept of pre-paid cards available for all Walmart shoppers is brought up. In collaboration with American Express, Walmart was able to derive an alternative to debit cards, at lower cost and with lower fees – called the ‘Bluebird’.

With the increasing costs of banking and maintaining accounts, Walmart hopes that customers will realise the value for money that the ‘Bluebird’ accounts offer, and that consequently the number of users will further increase. With 28.3% of the market being classified as ‘unbanked’ (meaning 28.3% of the market prefers to carry out transactions that do not involve banks), there is a gap in the market that Walmart can most certainly seize with the new Bluebird account. 

With only $3 of monthly payments, the Bluebird has become one of the fastest growing alternatives to regular banking (5% growth in 2011). This brought it to the attention of banking giants such as FDIC, which began to retaliate by pointing out the dangers and potential limitations of prepaid cards.

Will the Bluebird card system continue to grow? Or will it get shut down by the banking giants? Would you personally prefer to use a prepaid card or would you rather continue using your debit/VISA card?

According to Bruce Upbin’s latest article on Forbes, in order for Apple to secure its position in the future, it should buy Nokia.

Nokia’s current market worth is $10 billion. Compared to Apple’s worth of $100 billion and the company’s strong purchasing power, it does not seem like a

difficult task, yet the benefits could be crucial. With the uprising patent war between Samsung and Apple, the latter needs a significant change in strategy in order to secure its future. That’s where Nokia comes in.

Nokia is very well known for its strong and reliable navigation system – something that Apple could learn from after their latest release of the iPhone 5 and the maps app. Secondly, Nokia has built a very efficient system that operates on the LTE frequency – another feature just recently introduced in the iPhone 5. Furthermore, Nokia has developed a very efficient TV streaming app and now that everyone is expecting Apple’s next move to be mobile TV, this could come in useful. Lastly, Nokia cooperates with Microsoft and a number of other brands. Hence why buying Nokia could present Apple with a leverage that could prove crucial at some point in the future.

Upbin, Bruce. Why Apple should buy Nokia. 10/06/2012 @ 9:49PM. Forbes Magazine. http://www.forbes.com/sites/bruceupbin/2012/10/06/nokias-one-percent-iphone-tax-why-apple-should-buy-nokia/